As for the length of time which would probably be required for the cure, they must not be surprised to hear the whole winter might easily slip away before his return⁠—in short, that he might come down hardly earlier than Joachim. Ideas about time were different up here from those ordinarily held about the length of stay at the baths, or at an ordinary cure. The smallest unit of time, so to speak, was the month, and a single month was almost no time at all.