XVIII

comes back soon, he’s gone now all the same. But Jeremiah stayed. When he’s in service he fears the slightest look of his master, but when he’s not in service there’s nothing he’s afraid of. He came and took me; forsaken by you, commanded by him, my old friend, I couldn’t resist. I didn’t unlock the school door. He smashed the window and lifted me out. We flew here, the landlord looks up to him, nothing could be more welcome to the guests, either, than to have such a waiter, so we were taken on, he isn’t living with me, but we are staying in the same room.” “In spite of everything,” said K. , “I don’t regret having driven the assistants from our service. If things stood as you say, and your faithfulness was only determined by the assistants’ being in the position of servants, then it was a good thing that it came to an end. The happiness of a married life spent with two beasts of prey, who could only be kept under by the whip, wouldn’t have been very great. In that case I’m even thankful to this family who have unintentionally had some part in separating us.” They became silent and began to walk backwards and forwards again side by side, though neither this time could have told who had made the first move. Close beside him, Frieda seemed annoyed that K. did not take her arm again. “And so everything seems in order,” K. went on, “and we might as well say goodbye, and you go to your Jeremiah, who must have had this chill, it seems, ever since I chased him through the garden, and whom you’ve already left by himself too long in that case, and I to the empty school, or, seeing that there’s no place for me there without you, anywhere else where they’ll take me in. If I hesitate still in spite of this, it’s because I have still a little doubt about what you’ve told me, and with good reason. I have a different impression of Jeremiah. So long as he was in service he was always at your heels and I don’t believe that his position would have held him back permanently from making a serious attempt on you. But now that he considers that he’s absolved from service, it’s a different case. Forgive me if I have to explain myself in this way: Since you’re no longer his master’s fiancée, you’re by no means such a temptation for him as you used to be. You