midday
Half suffocating , he watched with bulging eyes as his sister unselfconsciously took a broom and swept up the left-overs , mixing them in with the food he had not even touched at all as if it could not be used any more . She quickly dropped it all into a bin , closed it with its wooden lid , and carried everything out . She had hardly turned her back before Gregor came out again from under the couch and stretched himself . This was how Gregor received his food each day now , once in the morning while his parents and the maid were still asleep , and the second time after everyone had eaten their meal at midday as his parents would sleep for a little while then as well , and Gregor 's sister would send the maid away on some errand . Gregor 's father and mother certainly did not want him to starve either , but perhaps it would have been more than they could stand to have any more experience of his feeding than being told about it , and perhaps his sister wanted to spare them what distress she could as they were indeed suffering enough . It was impossible for Gregor to find out what they had told the doctor and the locksmith that first morning to get them out of the flat . As nobody could understand him , nobody , not even his sister , thought that he could understand them , so he had to be content to hear his sister 's sighs and appeals to the saints as she moved about his room .