VLADIMIR NABOKOV
367
would watch all the doors of his room at once and spit at intruders; but
his sister should need no constraint, she should stay with him of her
own free will ; she should sit beside him on the couch, bend down her
ear to him and hear him confide that he had had the firm intention of
sending her to the School of Music, and that, but for his mishap, last
Christmas-surely Christmas was long past?-he would have an–
nounced it to everybody without allowing a single objection. After this
confession his sister would be so touched that she would burst into
tears, and Gregor would then raise himself to her shoulder and kiss her
on the neck, which, now that she went to business, she kept free of any
ribbon or collar. "
Suddenly the middle lodger sees Gregor, but instead of driving
Gregor out the father tries to soothe the lodgers and (in a reversal of his
actions) "spreading out his arms, tried to urge them back into their
own room and at the same time to block their view of Gregor. They
now began to be really a little angry, one could not tell whether because
of the old man's behavior or because it had just dawned on them that
all unwittingly they had such a neighbor as Gregor next door. They
demanded explanations of his father, they waved their arms like him,
tugged uneasily at their beards, and only with reluctance backed
towards their room." The sister rushes into the lodgers' room and
quickly makes up their beds, but "The old man seemed once more to be
so possessed by his mulish self-assertiveness that he was forgetting all
the respect he should show to his lodgers. He kept driving them on and
driving them on until in the very door of the bedroom the middle
lodger stamped his foot loudly on the floor and so brought him to a
halt. 'I beg to announce,' said the lodger, lifting one hand and looking
also at Gregor's mother and sister, 'that because of the disgusting
conditions prevailing in this household and family '-here he spa t on
the floor with emphatic brevity- 'I give you notice on the spot.
Naturally I won't pay you a penny for the days 1 have lived here; on the
contrary I shall consider bringing an action for damages against you,
based on claims-believe me-that will be easily susceptible of proof.'
He ceased and stared straight in front of him, as if he expected
something.
In
fact his two friends at once rushed into the breach with
these words: 'And we too give notice on the spot. ' On that he seized the
door-handle and shut the door with a slam."
Scene VII:
The sister is completely unmasked; her betrayal is
absolute and fatal to Gregor. "'I won't utter my brother's name in the
presence of this creature, and so all 1 say is: we must try to get rid of
it. ...
"'We must try to get rid of it,' his sister now said explicitly to her
