For now she was ill indeed, not actually in high fever, but finished, done, made a mess of⁠—oh, what a face he was making, how funny he looked, ha, ha, ha! She pointed at Hans Castorp and laughed so hard that even her brow grew blue. The funniest thing of all, she said, was the way Behrens raved and reviled⁠—it had made her laugh, at first, when she discovered that she was overfilled.

“You are in absolute danger of your life,” he had bellowed at her, just like that, without making any bones of it. “What a bear⁠—ah, ha, ha, ha!⁠—you really must please forgive me.”