- end_line
- 519
- extracted_at
- 2026-01-27T20:59:06.318Z
- extracted_by
- structure-extraction-lambda
- start_line
- 462
- text
- took two steps forward towards Gregor and sank down onto the floor into
her skirts that spread themselves out around her as her head
disappeared down onto her breast. His father looked hostile, and
clenched his fists as if wanting to knock Gregor back into his room.
Then he looked uncertainly round the living room, covered his eyes with
his hands and wept so that his powerful chest shook.
So Gregor did not go into the room, but leant against the inside of the
other door which was still held bolted in place. In this way only half
of his body could be seen, along with his head above it which he leant
over to one side as he peered out at the others. Meanwhile the day had
become much lighter; part of the endless, grey-black building on the
other side of the street—which was a hospital—could be seen quite
clearly with the austere and regular line of windows piercing its
façade; the rain was still falling, now throwing down large, individual
droplets which hit the ground one at a time. The washing up from
breakfast lay on the table; there was so much of it because, for
Gregor’s father, breakfast was the most important meal of the day and
he would stretch it out for several hours as he sat reading a number of
different newspapers. On the wall exactly opposite there was photograph
of Gregor when he was a lieutenant in the army, his sword in his hand
and a carefree smile on his face as he called forth respect for his
uniform and bearing. The door to the entrance hall was open and as the
front door of the flat was also open he could see onto the landing and
the stairs where they began their way down below.
“Now, then”, said Gregor, well aware that he was the only one to have
kept calm, “I’ll get dressed straight away now, pack up my samples and
set off. Will you please just let me leave? You can see”, he said to
the chief clerk, “that I’m not stubborn and I like to do my job; being
a commercial traveller is arduous but without travelling I couldn’t
earn my living. So where are you going, in to the office? Yes? Will you
report everything accurately, then? It’s quite possible for someone to
be temporarily unable to work, but that’s just the right time to
remember what’s been achieved in the past and consider that later on,
once the difficulty has been removed, he will certainly work with all
the more diligence and concentration. You’re well aware that I’m
seriously in debt to our employer as well as having to look after my
parents and my sister, so that I’m trapped in a difficult situation,
but I will work my way out of it again. Please don’t make things any
harder for me than they are already, and don’t take sides against me at
the office. I know that nobody likes the travellers. They think we earn
an enormous wage as well as having a soft time of it. That’s just
prejudice but they have no particular reason to think better of it. But
you, sir, you have a better overview than the rest of the staff, in
fact, if I can say this in confidence, a better overview than the boss
himself—it’s very easy for a businessman like him to make mistakes
about his employees and judge them more harshly than he should. And
you’re also well aware that we travellers spend almost the whole year
away from the office, so that we can very easily fall victim to gossip
and chance and groundless complaints, and it’s almost impossible to
defend yourself from that sort of thing, we don’t usually even hear
about them, or if at all it’s when we arrive back home exhausted from a
trip, and that’s when we feel the harmful effects of what’s been going
on without even knowing what caused them. Please, don’t go away, at
least first say something to show that you grant that I’m at least
partly right!”
- title
- Chunk 7