XI
He reached the school chilled through and through, it was quite dark, the candles in the lanterns had burned down; led by the assistants, who already knew their way here, he felt his road into one of the classrooms. “Your first praiseworthy service,” he said, remembering Klamm’s letter. Still half-asleep Frieda cried out from a corner: “Let K. sleep! Don’t disturb him!” so entirely did K. occupy her thoughts, even though she had been so overcome with sleep that she had not been able to wait up for him. Now a light was got, but the lamp could not be turned up very far, for there was only a little paraffin left. The new household was still without many necessaries. The room had been heated, it was true, but it was a large one, sometimes used as the gymnasium—the gymnastic apparatus was standing about and hanging from the ceiling—and it had already used up all the supply of wood—had been very warm and cosy too, as K. was assured, but unfortunately had grown quite cold again. There was, however, a large supply of wood in a shed, but the shed was locked and the teacher had the key; he only allowed this wood to be used for heating the school during teaching hours. The room could have been endured if there had been beds where one might have taken refuge. But in that line there was nothing but one sack stuffed with straw, covered with praiseworthy tidiness by a woollen rug of Frieda’s, but with no featherbed and only two rough stiff blankets, which hardly served to keep one warm. And it was precisely at this wretched sack of straw that the assistants were staring greedily, but of course without any hope of ever being allowed to lie on it. Frieda looked anxiously at K.; that she knew how to make a room, even the most wretched, habitable, she had proved in the Bridge Inn, but here she had not been able to make any headway, quite without means as she was. “Our only ornaments are the gymnastic contraptions,” said she, trying to smile through her tears. But for the chief deficiencies, the lack of sleeping accommodation and fuel, she promised absolutely to find help the very next day, and begged K. only to be patient till then. From no word, no hint, no sign could one have concluded that she harboured even the slightest trace of bitterness against K. in her heart, although, as he had to admit himself, he had torn her away first from the Herrenhof and now from the Bridge Inn as well. So in return K. did his best to find everything tolerable, which was not difficult for him, indeed, because in thought he was still with Barnabas repeating his message word for word, not however as he had given it to Barnabas, but as he thought it would sound before Klamm. After all, however, he was very sincerely glad of the coffee which Frieda had boiled for him on a spirit burner, and leaning against the almost cold stove followed the nimble, practised movements with which she spread the indispensable white table-cover on the teacher’s table, brought out a flowered cup, then some bread and sausage, and actually a box of sardines. Now everything was ready, Frieda too had not eaten yet, but had waited for K. Two chairs were available, there K. and Frieda sat down to their table, the assistants at their feet on the dais, but they could never stay quiet, even while eating they made a disturbance. Although they had received an ample store of everything and were not yet nearly finished with it, they got up from time to time to make sure whether there was still anything on the table and they could still expect something for themselves; K. paid no attention to them and only began to take notice when Frieda laughed at them. He covered her hand with his tenderly and asked softly why she was so indulgent to them and treated even their naughtinesses so kindly. In this way one would never get rid of them, while through a certain degree of severity, which besides was demanded by their behaviour, one could manage either to curb them or, what was both more probable and more desirable, to make their position so hot for them that they would have finally to leave. The school here didn’t seem to be a very pleasant place to live in for long, well, it wouldn’t last very long in any case; but they would hardly notice all the drawbacks if the assistants were once gone and they two had the quiet house to themselves; and didn’t she notice too that the assistants were becoming more impudent every day, as if they were actually encouraged now by Frieda’s presence and the hope that K. wouldn’t treat them with such firmness as he would have done in other circumstances? Besides, there were probably quite simple means of getting rid of them at once, without ceremony, perhaps Frieda herself knew of these, seeing that she was so well acquainted with all the circumstances. And from all appearances one would only be doing the assistants a favour if one got rid of them in some way, for the advantage they got by staying here couldn’t be great, and besides the lazy spells which they must have enjoyed till now must cease here, to a certain extent at any rate, for they would have to work while Frieda spared herself after the excitements of the last few days, and he, K., was occupied in finding a way out of their painful position. All the same, if the assistants should go away, he would be so relieved that he felt he could quite easily carry out all the school work in addition to his other duties.
Frieda, who had been listening attentively, stroked his arm and said that that was her opinion too, but that perhaps he took the assistants’ mischief too seriously, they were mere lads, full of spirits and a little silly now that they were for the first time in strange service, just released from the strict discipline of the Castle, and so a little dazed and excited, and being in that state they of course committed lots of follies at which it was natural to be annoyed, but which it would be more sensible to laugh at. Often she simply couldn’t keep from laughing. All the same she absolutely agreed with K. that it would be much better to send the assistants away and be by themselves, just the two of them. She pressed closer to K. and hid her face on his shoulder. And there she whispered something so low that K. had to bend his head to hear; it was that all the same she knew of no way of dealing with the assistants and she was afraid that all that K. had suggested would be of no avail. So far as she knew it was K. himself who had asked for them, and now he had them and would have to keep them. It would be best to treat them as a joke, which they certainly were; that would be the best way to put up with them.
K. was displeased by her answer; half in jest, half in earnest, he replied that she seemed actually to be in league with them, or at least to have a strong inclination in their favour, well, they were good-looking lads, but there was nobody who couldn’t be got rid of if only one had the will, and he would show her that that was so in the case of the assistants.
Frieda said that she would be very grateful to him if he could manage it. And from now on she wouldn’t laugh at them any more, nor have any unnecessary talk with them. Besides she didn’t find anything now to laugh at, it was really no joke always to be spied on by two men, she had learned to look at the two of them with K.’s eyes. And she actually shrank a little when the assistants got up again, partly to have a look at the food that was left, partly to get at the bottom of the continued whispering.
K. employed this incident to increase Frieda’s disgust for the assistants, drew her towards him, and so side by side they finished their supper. Now it was time to go to bed, for they were all very sleepy; one of the assistants had actually fallen asleep over his food, this amused the other one greatly, and he did his best to get the others to look at the vacant face of his companion, but he had no success. K. and Frieda sat on above without paying any attention. The cold was becoming so extreme that they shirked going to bed; at last K. declared that the room must be heated, otherwise it would be impossible to get to sleep. He looked round to see if he could find an axe or something. The assistants knew of one and fetched it, and now they proceeded to the wood shed. In a few minutes the flimsy door was smashed and torn open; as if they had never yet experienced anything so glorious, the assistants began to carry the wood into the classroom, hounding each other on and knocking against each other; soon there was a great pile, the stove was set going, everybody lay down round it, the assistants were given a blanket to roll themselves in—it was quite ample for them, for it was decided that one of them should always remain awake and keep the fire going—and soon it was so hot round the stove that the blankets were no longer needed, the lamps were put out, and K. and Frieda happily stretched themselves out to sleep in the warm silence.
K. was awakened during the night by some noise or other, and in his first vague sleepy state felt for Frieda; he found that, instead of Frieda, one of the assistants was lying beside him. Probably because of the exacerbation which being suddenly awakened is sufficient in itself to cause, this gave him the greatest fright that he had ever had since he first came to the village. With a cry he sat up, and not knowing what he was doing gave the assistant such a buffet that he began to cry. However the whole thing was cleared up in a moment. Frieda had been awakened—at least so it had seemed to her—by some huge animal, a cat probably, which had sprung on to her breast and then leapt away again. She had got up and was searching the whole room for the beast with a candle. One of the assistants had seized the opportunity to enjoy the sack of straw for a little, an attempt which he was now bitterly repenting. Frieda could find nothing, however; perhaps it had only been a delusion, she went back to K. and on the way she stroked the crouching and whimpering assistant over the hair to comfort him, as if she had forgotten the evening’s conversation. K. said nothing, but he asked the assistant to stop putting wood on the fire, for owing to almost all the heat having been squandered the room was already too hot.