Mrs. Grubach??

The main character, K., of Kafka's The Trial has interactions with many weird people.  He interacted with strange is deceiving policemen, and explainable judge, and various other people.  But no relationship is more curious than that of K. and Mrs. Grubach.  She is K.'s landlady, but there seems to be more than that.  K. is very comfortable with going to her room in the middle of the night and talking with her, which she also does not object to.  Mrs. Grubach gossips as one point to K. about another tenet who they were discussing.  But this seemingly familiar relationship is at the same time a rather distant one.  K. feels uncomfortable calling Mrs. Grubach by her first name, as she does about him.  Mrs. Grubach's mood also seems to hang in the balance of K. attitude.  It is said that K. could ruin her entire night with one comment.  "K. ... then looked back at the shocked Mrs. Grubach in a way that was almost contemptuous " (Kafka, 56).  For what ever reason, it appears that Mrs. Grubach's mood is closely related with the way K. treats her, and how he is feeling.  This strange relationship adds to the atmosphere of the reader not knowing very much already, as it is a very curious relationship.