standing arm in arm behind her. And so now, as if she needed support, she seized one of them by the hand, “do you hear where the man goes hobnobbing, with the family of Barnabas? Oh, certainly he’d get a bed there; I only wish he’d stay’d there overnight instead of in the Herrenhof. But where were you two?”
“Madam,” said K. before the assistants had time to answer, “these are my assistants. But you’re treating them as if they were your assistants and my keepers. In every other respect I’m willing at least to argue the point with you courteously, but not where my assistants are concerned, that’s too obvious a matter. I request you therefore not to speak to my assistants, and if my request proves ineffective I shall forbid my assistants to answer you.”
“So I’m not allowed to speak to you,” said the landlady, and they laughed all three, the landlady scornfully, but with less anger than K. had expected, and the assistants in their usual manner, which meant both much and little and disclaimed all responsibility.