But it would have seemed too risky to put his opposition into words. He confined himself to commenting upon what Herr Settembrini had said about Hermine Kleefeld, which he found ungenerous⁠—or rather, had his reasons for wishing to find it so.

“But the girl is ill,” he said. “She is seriously ill, without the shadow of a doubt⁠—she has every reason for pessimism. What do you expect of her?”

“Disease and despair,” Settembrini said, “are often only forms of depravity.”

“And Leopardi,” thought Hans Castorp, “who definitely despaired of science and progress? And our schoolmaster himself? He is infected too and keeps coming back here, and Carducci would have had small joy of him.”

Aloud he said: “You are good! Why, the girl may lie down and die any day, and you call it depravity! You’ll have to make that a little clearer. If you said that illness is sometimes a consequence of depravity, that would at least be sensible.”