He had got so far that he could barely keep his
equilibrium when he rocked himself strongly, and he would have to
nerve himself very soon for the
final decision since in five minutes time it would be a quarter past seven - when the front door bell rang. "That's someone from the office," he said to himself, and grew almost
rigid, while his little legs only
jigged about all the faster. For a moment everything stayed quiet. "They're not going to open the door," said Gregor to himself, catching at some kind of
irrational hope. But then of course the servant girl went as usual to the door with her heavy
tread and opened it. Gregor needed only to hear the first good morning of the visitor to know immediately who it was - the chief clerk himself. What a
fate, to be condemned to work for a firm where the smallest
omission at once gave rise to the
gravest
suspicion! Were all employees in a body nothing but
scoundrels, was there not among them one single
loyal devoted man who, had he wasted only an hour or so of the firm's time in a morning, was so
tormented by
conscience as to be driven out of his
mind and actually
incapable of leaving his bed? Wouldn't it really have been
sufficient to send an
apprentice to inquire - if any inquiry were necessary at all - did the chief clerk himself have to come and thus indicate to the entire family, an innocent family, that this suspicious circumstance could be investigated by no one less
versed in affairs than himself? And more through the agitation caused by these reflections than through any act of will Gregor swung himself out of bed with all his strength. There was a loud thump, but it was not really a crash. His fall was broken to some extent by the carpet, his back, too, was less stiff than he thought, and so there was merely a dull thud, not so very startling. Only he had not lifted his head carefully enough and had hit it; he turned it and rubbed it on the carpet in pain and irritation.
"That was something
falling down in there," said the chief clerk in the next room to the left. Gregor tried to suppose to himself that something like what had happened to him today might some day happen to the chief clerk; one really could not
deny that it was
possible. But as if in
brusque reply to this
supposition the chief clerk took a couple of firm steps in the next-door room and his patent leather boots creaked. From the right-hand room his sister was whispering to inform him of the situation:
"Gregor, the chief clerk's here."
"
I know," muttered Gregor to himself; but he didn't dare to make his voice loud enough for his sister to hear it.
"Gregor," said his father now from the left-hand room, "the chief clerk has come and wants to know why you didn't catch the early train. We don't know what to say to him. Besides, he wants to talk to you
in person. So open the door, please. He will be good enough to excuse the untidiness of your room."
"Good morning, Mr. Samsa," the chief clerk was calling amiably
meanwhile.
"He's not well," said his mother to the visitor, while his father was still speaking through the door, "he's not well, sir, believe me. What else would make him miss a train! The boy thinks about nothing but his work. It makes me almost
cross the way he never goes out in the evenings; he's been here the last eight days and has stayed at home every single evening. He just sits there quietly at the table reading a
newspaper or looking through
railway timetables. The only
amusement he gets is doing
fretwork. For instance, he spent two or three evenings cutting out a little picture frame; you would be surprised to see how pretty it is; it's hanging in his room; you'll see it in a minute when Gregor opens the door. I must say I'm glad you've come, sir; we should never have got him to unlock the door by ourselves; he's so
obstinate; and I'm sure he's
unwell, though he wouldn't have it to be so this morning."
"I'm just coming," said Gregor slowly and carefully, not moving an inch for fear of losing one word of the conversation.
"I can't think of any other explanation, madam," said the chief clerk, "I hope it's nothing serious. Although on the other hand I must say that we men of business -
fortunately or
unfortunately - very often simply have to ignore any slight
indisposition, since business must be attended to."
"Well, can the chief clerk come in now?" asked Gregor's father impatiently, again knocking on the door.
"No," said Gregor. In the left-hand room a
painful silence followed this
refusal, in the right-hand room his sister began to
sob.
Why didn't his sister join the others? She was probably newly out of bed and hadn't even begun to put on her clothes yet. Well, why was she crying? Because he wouldn't get up and let the chief clerk in, because he was in
danger of losing his job, and because the chief would begin
dunning his parents again for the
old debts? Surely these were things one didn't need to worry about for the present. Gregor was still at home and not in the least thinking of deserting the family. At the moment, true, he was
lying on the carpet and no one who knew the condition he was in could seriously expect him to admit the chief clerk. But for such a small
discourtesy, which could
plausibly be explained away somehow later on, Gregor could hardly be dismissed on the spot. And it seemed to Gregor that it would be much more sensible to leave him in peace for the present than to trouble him with
tears and entreaties. Still, of course, their
uncertainty bewildered them all and excused their behavior.
"Mr. Samsa," the chief clerk called now in a louder voice, "what's the matter with you? Here you are, barricading yourself in your room, giving only 'yes' and 'no' for answers, causing your parents a lot of
unnecessary trouble and
neglecting - I mention this only in passing - neglecting your business duties in an
incredible fashion. I am speaking here in the name of your parents and of your chief, and I
beg you quite
seriously to give me an immediate and
precise explanation. You amaze me,
you amaze me. I thought you were a quiet,
dependable person, and now all at once you seem bent on making a
disgraceful
exhibition of yourself. The chief did hint to me early this morning a possible explanation for your disappearance-with reference to the cash payments that were
entrusted to you recently - but I almost pledged my
solemn word of honor that this could not be so. But now that I see how incredibly obstinate you are, I no longer have the slightest desire to take your part at all. And your position in the firm is not so
unassailable. I came with the intention of telling you all this in private, but since you are wasting my time so needlessly I don't see why your parents shouldn't hear it too. For some time past your work has been most
unsatisfactory; this is not the season of the year for a business boom, of course, we admit that, but a season of the year for doing no business at all, that does not exist, Mr. Samsa, must not
exist."
"But, sir," cried Gregor, beside himself and in his agitation forgetting everything else, "I'm just going to open the door this very minute. A slight
illness, an
attack of giddiness, has kept me from getting up. I'm still lying in bed. But I feel all right again. I'm getting out of bed now. Just give me a moment or two longer! I'm not quite so well as I thought. But I'm all right, really. How a thing like that can suddenly
strike one down! Only last night I was quite well my parents can tell you, or rather I did have a slight
presentiment. I must have showed some sign of it. Why didn't I report it at the office! But one always thinks that an
indisposition can be got over without staying in the house. Oh sir, do
spare my parents! All that you're
reproaching me with now has no
foundation; no one has ever said a word to me about it. Perhaps you haven't looked at the last orders I sent in. Anyhow, I can still catch the eight o'clock train, I'm much the better for my few hours' rest. Don't let me
detain you here, sir; I'll be attending to business very soon, and do be good enough to tell the chief so and to make my excuses to him!"
And while all this was tumbling out
pell-mell and Gregor hardly knew what he was saying, he had reached the chest quite easily, perhaps because of the practice he had had in bed, and was now trying to
lever himself
upright by means of it. He meant actually to open the door, actually to show himself and speak to the chief clerk; he was eager to find out what the others, after all their insistence, would say at the sight of him. If they were horrified then the
responsibility was no longer his and he could stay quiet. But if they took it calmly, then he had no reason either to be upset, and could really get to the station for the eight o'clock train if he hurried. At first he slipped down a few times from the polished surface of the chest, but at length with a last
heave he stood upright; he paid no more attention to the pains in the lower part of his body, however they
smarted. Then he let himself fall against the back of a nearby chair, and clung with his little legs to the edges of it. That brought him into control of himself again and he stopped speaking, for now he could listen to what the chief clerk was saying.
"Did you understand a word of it?" the chief clerk was asking; "surely he can't be trying to make fools of us?"
"Oh dear," cried his mother, in tears, "perhaps he's terribly ill and we're tormenting him. Grete! Grete!" she called out then.
"Yes Mother?" called his sister from the other side. They were calling to each other across Gregor's room. "You must go this minute for the
doctor. Gregor is ill. Go for the doctor,
quick. Did you hear how he was speaking?"
"That was no
human voice," said the chief clerk in a voice noticeably low beside the
shrillness of the mother's.
"Anna! Anna!" his father was calling through the hall to the kitchen, clapping his hands, "get a
locksmith at once!" And the two girls were already running through the hall with a swish of skirts - how could his sister have got dressed so quickly? - and were tearing the front door open. There was no sound of its closing again; they had evidently left it open, as one does in houses where some great
misfortune has happened.
But Gregor was now much calmer. The words he uttered were no longer
understandable,
apparently, although they seemed clear enough to him, even clearer than before, perhaps because his ear had grown accustomed to the sound of them. Yet at any rate people now believed that something was wrong with him, and were ready to help him. The positive
certainty with which these first measures had been taken comforted him. He felt himself drawn once more into
the human circle and hoped for great and
remarkable results from both the doctor and the locksmith, without really distinguishing precisely between them. To make his voice as clear as possible for the
decisive conversation that was now
imminent he coughed a little, as quietly as he could, of course, since this noise too might not sound like a human cough for all he was able to judge. In the next room meanwhile there was complete silence. Perhaps his parents were sitting at the table with the chief clerk, whispering, perhaps they were all leaning against the door and listening.
Slowly Gregor pushed the chair towards the door, then let go of it, caught hold of the door for support - the
soles at the end of his little legs were somewhat
sticky - and rested against it for a moment after his efforts. Then he set himself to turning the key in the lock with his mouth. It seemed, unhappily, that he hadn't really any
teeth - what could he
grip the key with?-but on the other hand his jaws were certainly very
strong; with their help he did manage to set the key in motion,
heedless of the fact that he was undoubtedly damaging them somewhere, since a
brown fluid issued from his mouth, flowed over the key and dripped on the floor.
"Just listen to that," said the chief clerk next door; "he's turning the key." That was a great encouragement to Gregor; but they should all have shouted
encouragement to him, his father and mother too: "Go on, Gregor," they should have called out, "keep going, hold on to that key!" And in the belief that they were all following his efforts intently, he clenched his jaws recklessly on the key with all the force at his command. As the turning of the key progressed he circled round the lock, holding on now only with his mouth, pushing on the key, as required, or pulling it down again with all the weight of his body. The louder click of the finally
yielding lock
literally quickened Gregor. With a deep breath of relief he said to himself:
"So I didn't need the locksmith," and laid his head on the handle to open the door wide.
Since he had to pull the door towards him, he was still invisible when it was really wide open. He had to edge himself slowly round the near half of the double door, and to do it very carefully if he was not to fall
plump upon his back just on the
threshold. He was still carrying out this difficult
maneuver, with no time to observe anything else, when he heard the chief clerk utter a loud "Oh!" - it sounded like a
gust of wind - and now he could see the man, standing as he was nearest to the door, clapping one hand before his open mouth and slowly backing away as if driven by some
invisible steady pressure. His mother - in spite of the chief clerk's being there her hair was still
undone and sticking up in all directions - first clasped her hands and looked at his father, then took two steps towards Gregor and fell on the floor among her outspread skirts, her face quite hidden on her breast. His father knotted his fist with a
fierce expression on his face as if he meant to knock Gregor back into his room, then looked uncertainly round the living room, covered his eyes with his hands and
wept till his great chest heaved.
continue: The Metamorphosis 3