Chapter XIII: Hans and Chapter XIV: Frieda's Reproach Summary

: K. hears a knock at the door and finds one of the children he saw at the master tanner's outside. He is evidently supposed to be attending class but sneaked out in order to help K. They talk briefly about his family. K. discovers his mother is the sick woman he saw with the peculiar gaze and finds out that she has either been to the Castle herself or at least probably has connections there. He feels bad for K. because he saw the schoolteacher had scolded him, but K. assures him that it really does not affect him. Hans asks if can be of any other use, but K. assures him that he cannot be. Before he leaves, though, K. returns to the subject of the boy's mother...