1 Gregor listened very closely to all this, and approved fully.
2 By now he had also calmed down, and kept quiet so that he could listen to what the chief clerk was saying.
3 Perhaps his parents were sat at the table whispering with the chief clerk, or perhaps they were all pressed against the door and listening.
4 That was the sort of totally pointless thing that went through his mind in his present state, pressed upright against the door and listening.
5 When he had nearly finished turning round, still listening to that hissing, he made a mistake and turned himself back a little the way he had just come.
6 At that, and without delay, the man actually did take long strides into the front hallway; his two friends had stopped rubbing their hands some time before and had been listening to what was being said.
7 Although Gregor wasn't able to hear any news directly he did listen to much of what was said in the next rooms, and whenever he heard anyone speaking he would scurry straight to the appropriate door and press his whole body against it.
8 There were times when he simply became too tired to continue listening, when his head would fall wearily against the door and he would pull it up again with a start, as even the slightest noise he caused would be heard next door and they would all go silent.
9 Gregor even learned, listening to the evening conversation about what price they had hoped for, that several items of jewellery belonging to the family had been sold, even though both mother and sister had been very fond of wearing them at functions and celebrations.
10 The old chest of drawers was too heavy for a pair of feeble women to be heaving about, but Gregor listened as they pushed it from its place, his sister always taking on the heaviest part of the work for herself and ignoring her mother's warnings that she would strain herself.
11 He got into the habit of closely watching it for one or two hours before it was opened and then, lying in the darkness of his room where he could not be seen from the living room, he could watch the family in the light of the dinner table and listen to their conversation - with everyone's permission, in a way, and thus quite differently from before.