Jeremiah had already begun to disappear. K. called him back. “Jeremiah,” he said, “I want to be quite frank with you; answer one question of mine too in the same spirit. We’re no longer in the position of master and servant, a matter of congratulation not only to you but to me too; we have no grounds, then, for deceiving each other. Here before your eyes I snap this switch which was intended for you, for it wasn’t for fear of you that I chose the backway out, but so as to surprise you and lay it across your shoulders a few times. But don’t take it badly, all that is over; if you hadn’t been forced on me as a servant by the bureau, but had been simply an acquaintance, we would certainly have got on splendidly, even if your appearance might have disturbed me occasionally. And we can make up now for what we have missed in that way.” “Do you think so?” asked the assistant, yawning and closing his eyes wearily. “I could of course explain the matter more at length, but I have no time, I must go to Frieda, the poor child is waiting for me, she hasn’t started on her job yet, at my request the landlord has given her a few hours’ grace⁠—she wanted to fling herself into the work at once probably to help her to forget⁠—and we want to spend that little time at least together. As for your proposal, I have no cause, certainly, to deceive you, but I have just as little to confide anything to you. My case, in other words, is different from yours. So long as my relation to you was that of a servant, you were naturally a very important person in my eyes, not because of your own qualities, but because of my office, and I would have done anything for you that you wanted, but now you’re of no importance to me. Even your breaking the switch doesn’t affect me, it only reminds me what a rough master I had, it’s not calculated to prejudice me in your favour.” “You talk to me,” said K. , “as if it were quite certain that you’ll never have to fear anything from me again. But that isn’t really so. From all appearances you’re not yet free from me, things aren’t settled here so quickly as that⁠—” “Sometimes even more quickly,” Jeremiah threw in.