K. has his second conversation with the landlady

K. has his second conversation with the landlady, Gardena, in her sickroom at the Bridge Inn. This encounter is the most intimate and revealing exchange between them, laying bare the landlady's own history with Klamm, her fierce loyalty to his memory, and her deep ambivalence toward K. — whom she simultaneously despises as a threat and tries to control as a pawn. The conversation pivots on a photograph, a shawl, and a nightcap, three mementoes of Klamm that Gardena has treasured for over twenty years, and it ends with K. refusing her offer to arrange a meeting with Klamm on her terms, a refusal that cements their enmity.

The Sickroom and the Photograph

The landlord meets K. outside the inn and tells him that his wife is "very upset and unhappy" about K., that she cannot work, and lies in bed sighing and complaining. K. agrees to see her. They pass through the well-lit kitchen, where three or four maids freeze at the sight of K., and enter a tiny, windowless room partitioned from the kitchen by thin wood. The room contains only a large double bed and a wardrobe; the landlady lies stretched on her back, breathing with difficulty, having thrown back the eiderdown. In bed she looks much younger than when dressed, though her worn face is pitiable under a lacy nightcap that sits unsteadily on her head. She sends everyone away — the assistants, the maids, even her husband, whom she addresses by her name, Gardena. When they are alone, she asks K. to hand her a shawl from the wardrobe, which she wraps around herself, remarking on its fine fabric. Then she takes a photograph from under her pillow and gives it to K. The photograph is faded, cracked, crumpled, and stained from years of being carried on her person. K. initially thinks it shows a young man lying on a plank, stretching and yawning, but Gardena corrects him: the man is in the air, doing the high jump on a cord. It is a picture of the messenger who first summoned her to Klamm. She says she saw him only once, briefly, and will never forget him. K. is distracted by the assistants tapping on the kitchen window from the yard, but Gardena takes no notice; she retrieves the photograph, smooths it, and pushes it back under her pillow with slow, memory-laden movements.

The Three Mementoes and Gardena's Story

Gardena explains that the shawl and the nightcap also came from Klamm, and that these three objects — the photograph, the shawl, and the nightcap — are her only mementoes of him. She confesses that without them she could probably never have borne her life here for so long, perhaps not even for a day. She contrasts herself with Frieda, who was intimate with Klamm for a long time but has no memento at all. Gardena herself was with Klamm only three times; he never summoned her again, and she does not know why. She took the mementoes because she guessed how short her time would be. "Klamm never gives anything away of his own accord," she says, "but if you see something suitable lying about there, you can ask for it." K. asks how long ago this was, and she replies, "Over twenty years, well over twenty years ago." K. then asks whether she realizes that such confessions cause him severe anxiety when he thinks of his forthcoming marriage to Frieda. Gardena thinks it unseemly for K. to bring up his own affairs and casts him an angry sideways glance. K. tries to mollify her, saying he is not saying a word against Klamm but that through force of circumstance he has a certain connection with him. He takes her faltering hand and reminds her how badly their last conversation turned out, asking that they part on good terms this time. She agrees but asks to be spared, saying that her fidelity to Klamm is her only sensitive spot. K. then asks how he is to bear this "terrible fidelity" in his own marriage, supposing Frieda is like her in this point. Gardena bristles at the phrase "terrible fidelity," insisting that she is faithful to her husband, but that Klamm once made her his mistress and she can never lose that rank. She asks who K. is to dare such a question. K. warns her, and she caves in, saying her husband has never asked such questions. She wonders which of them is more unhappy — she, whom Klamm never summoned again, or Frieda, who wilfully left Klamm. She describes how, for years after her marriage, her nights were consumed with talk of Klamm and the reasons why he changed his mind, and how she would wake her husband if he fell asleep to continue the conversation.

The Marriage and the Inn

K. asks how she came to know her husband and how the inn came into her hands. Gardena tells a simple story: her father was the blacksmith, and Hans, her present husband, was a groom who often visited her father. After her last meeting with Klamm, she was very unhappy and sat in the front garden all day. Hans saw her there and sometimes sat with her, weeping in sympathy. The old landlord, whose wife had died and who was giving up the business, saw them sitting together and offered to lease them the inn without any money in advance and at a very low rent. She was indifferent to everything and gave Hans her hand in marriage, hoping the new work might help her forget. K. asks whether the old landlord acted generously or had special reasons to trust them. Gardena says the old landlord knew Hans well — he was Hans's uncle. K. presses further, suggesting that Hans's family must have been greatly in favor of the marriage to make such a sacrifice. Gardena says she never troubled to think about it. K. insists it must have been so, but Gardena counters that the old landlord was not being rash, as it turned out later: she threw herself into the work, was strong, needed no help, and cooked so well that guests were enticed away from the Castle Inn. They were able to pay the rent properly and buy the whole place after a few years, though she undermined her health and developed a serious heart condition. K. acknowledges her achievements but returns to the time before the marriage, arguing that it would have been amazing for Hans's family to urge the marriage when it meant financial sacrifice and trusting only in her capacity for work, which they could not have known at the time, and Hans's total lack of it, which they must have noticed. Gardena wearily says she sees what K. is getting at and how wide of the mark he is: Klamm had no hand in any of this. He knew nothing about her, and the fact that he never summoned her again showed that he had forgotten her entirely, not just in the past but for the future too, once and for all. She dismisses as utter nonsense the idea that Klamm gave her in marriage to Hans so that she would have no trouble coming to him again should he summon her.

K.'s Interpretation and the Failed Agreement

K. clarifies that his thoughts had not gone as far as she assumes. He was simply marvelling that Hans's family hoped for so much from the marriage, and their hopes were indeed fulfilled, though at the cost of her heart and health. He then lays out his own interpretation: Klamm is obviously the reason for her marriage — if not for Klamm she would not have been unhappy, would not have sat idle in the garden, would not have met Hans, would not have married him, would not have worked so hard to forget, and would not have developed her heart condition. He also suggests that Hans's family may have been tempted by the fact that to have been Klamm's mistress means a rise in rank that a woman can never lose, and by the hope that the lucky star which led her to Klamm was still hers. Gardena asks if he means all that seriously, and K. says he does, but adds that Hans's family were neither entirely right nor entirely wrong in their hopes, and that he also sees the mistake she made: outwardly it all seems successful, but Hans would have been much happier with a simple girl whose first great love he was, and she herself is not happy, as she would not want to go on living without those three mementoes. He concludes that the blessing of that lucky star was hers, but they did not know how to make the most of it. When Gardena asks what they failed to do, K. replies: "They didn't ask Klamm." Gardena accuses him of bringing the conversation back to his own affairs. K. says their affairs run parallel. She then asks him directly what he wants from Klamm, saying she has told him frankly about her case and that he might have learned something from it. K. says he has nothing to hide. He first challenges her claim that Klamm forgets at once, calling it a legend invented by girlish minds. Gardena insists it derives from general experience, but K. counters that there is a difference between her case and Frieda's: Klamm did not stop summoning Frieda; one might say he did summon her but she did not comply, and it is even possible that he is still waiting for her. Gardena falls silent, then asks K. not to mention Klamm's name, calling him "he" or something else. K. agrees and explains what he wants: first to see Klamm at close quarters, then to hear his voice, then to know from the man himself how he feels about the marriage. He says he can speak to Klamm as a private person anywhere, indoors or in the street, wherever he happens to meet him. Gardena then makes her offer: if she can get his request for a conversation with Klamm passed on through her connections, he must promise to do nothing on his own account until the answer comes down from the castle. K. refuses, saying he cannot promise that, especially after the unfortunate outcome of his conversation with the village mayor. Gardena dismisses the mayor as a man of no importance, claiming his wife Mizzi is in charge of everything. K. says he did not get any impression that Mizzi could do that. Gardena insists that whatever the mayor has decided about K. is of no significance, and that she will have a word with his wife. She promises that Klamm's answer will come in a week at the latest. K. still refuses, arguing that if he means to act anyway, he cannot request an interview first, as a negative answer would turn a daring venture into insubordination. Gardena says it is insubordination in any case, tells him to hand her her dress, and, taking no more notice of him, puts it on and hurries into the kitchen, where a commotion has been audible for some time. The midday meal has been delayed, and customers are waiting. K. hurries up to his room and Frieda.