“Don’t be so irresponsible! You only came for three weeks, and brought a steamer trunk. You will need underwear and linen, and winter clothes⁠—and more footwear. And anyhow, you will want money sent.”

“If,” said Hans Castorp, “ if I need it.”

“Very well, we’ll wait and see. But we ought not”⁠—Joachim paced up and down the room as he spoke, “we ought not to behave like ostriches. I have been up here too long not to know how things go. When Behrens says there is a rough place, almost rhonchi⁠—oh well, of course, we can wait and see.”

There, for the time, the matter rested; and the weekly and fortnightly variations of the normal day set in. Hans Castorp could partake of them even in his present state, if not at first hand, then through the reports Joachim gave when he came and sat by the bedside for fifteen minutes.