inconsiderateness spoke too low, although he had the fault repeatedly pointed out to him, and out of stubbornness silently refused to answer some of the other questions at all, quite without embarrassment, however, as a grownup would have been incapable of doing. He seemed to feel that he alone had the right to ask questions, and that by the questions of Frieda and K. some regulation were broken and time wasted. That made him sit silent for a long time, his body erect, his head bent, his underlip pushed out. Frieda was so charmed by his expression at these moments that she sometimes put questions to him in the hope that they would evoke it. And she succeeded several times, but K. was only annoyed. All that they found out did not amount to much. Hans’s mother was slightly unwell, but what her illness was remained indefinite; the child which she had had in her lap was Hans’ sister and was called Frieda (Hans was not pleased by the fact that her name was the same as the lady’s who was questioning him), the family lived in the village, but not with Lasemann⁠—they had only been there on a visit and to be bathed, seeing that Lasemann had the big tub in which the younger children, to whom Hans didn’t belong, loved to bathe and splash about. Of his father Hans spoke now with respect, now with fear, but only when his mother was not occupying the conversation; compared with his mother his father evidently was of little account, but all their questions about Brunswick’s family life remained, in spite of their efforts, unanswered. K. learned that the father had the biggest shoemaker’s business in the place, nobody could compete with him, in fact which quite remote questions brought out again and again; he actually gave out work to the other shoemakers, for example to Barnabas’ father; in this last case he had done it of course as a special favour⁠—at least Hans’s proud toss of the head seemed to hint at this, a gesture which made Frieda run over and give him a kiss. The question whether he had been in the Castle yet he only answered after it had been repeated several times, and with a “No.” The same question regarding his mother he did not answer at all. At last K. grew tired, to him too these questions seemed