“Oh,” answered Joachim, “it isn’t so out of the question, more’s the pity. Such things do happen up here. Two months before I came, a student who had been here a long time hanged himself down in the wood, after a general examination. It was a good deal talked about still, in the early days after I came.”

Hans Castorp gaped excitedly. “Well,” he declared, “I am certainly far from feeling fit up here. I couldn’t say I did. I think it’s quite possible I shan’t be able to stop, that I’ll have to leave⁠—you wouldn’t take it amiss, would you?”

“Leave? What is the matter with you?” cried Joachim. “Nonsense! You’ve just come. You can’t judge from the first day!”

“Good Lord, is it still only the first day? It seems to me I’ve been up here a long time⁠—ages.”

“Don’t begin to philosophize again about time,” said Joachim. “You had me perfectly bewildered this morning.”