He did not come hastily, not with an apology, but with that unagitated naturalness that people have who are used to others waiting for them. He wore, as always, a kind of uniform of indeterminacy: not a doctor\u2019s coat, not a suit, but something third \u2013 sporty, but not sporty enough to boast; well-groomed, but not dapper enough to lie.<\/p>\n
He saw the children, saw the woman, saw the paper.<\/p>\n
\u201cAh,\u201d he said, and in this \u201cAh\u201d lay everything: irony, approval, the slight pleasure of the diagnostician when a symptom presents itself nicely.<\/p>\n
\u201cDoctor,\u201d said Hans Castorp, and it sounded, as always, as if this word were a door he flung open in order to hide behind it.<\/p>\n
\u201cGood morning,\u201d said Dr. AuDHS. Then, to Mrs. Morgenstern: \u201cSo you are the lilies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mrs. Morgenstern smiled, and it was not offended, but amused. The children giggled, because children react to flowers as if they were animals.<\/p>\n
\u201cLilies?\u201d, asked the older girl.<\/p>\n
\u201cYes,\u201d said Dr. AuDHS. \u201cLilies. That is a compliment. It means: beautiful, sensitive, and you have to be careful not to trample them when you stomp through life in your boots.\u201d<\/p>\n
He sat down as if he belonged. And perhaps he did belong, for in this house he was the authority that connected everything: body and idea, measurement and morality.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd,\u201d he said, and his gaze fell again on the list, \u201cthese are your five commandments.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cResolutions,\u201d corrected Morgenstern.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the same,\u201d said Dr. AuDHS dryly. \u201cOnly without God. Our time has abolished God and kept the checklist.\u201d<\/p>\n
Morgenstern twisted his mouth as if he wanted to protest, but he did not protest. He saw his wife guiding a spoon with the younger child, calm, patient; and in this sight presumably lay the reason why he did not protest.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou said,\u201d said Dr. AuDHS, \u201cthe leeches outside.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes,\u201d said Morgenstern.<\/p>\n
\u201cGood,\u201d said Dr. AuDHS. \u201cThen today is a training day. Not for the muscle, but for the boundary.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hans Castorp heard the word \u201ctraining\u201d and felt a small reflex triggered in him: the reflex of performance, of planning, of repetition. It was strange how quickly the house had reshaped him.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going now,\u201d said Mrs. Morgenstern, very practically, as if morality did not need to be discussed but lived. \u201cThe children want to go out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dr. AuDHS nodded. \u201cVery good. Movement. You know: the human being is not a running animal, but a walking-trotting animal. And above all: sitting is the new smoking.\u201d He said it in a tone that both quoted Zieser and parodied Zieser, without one knowing exactly which side was stronger.<\/p>\n
The children stood up, Mrs. Morgenstern put jackets on them that looked as if they could ward off both rain and the end of the world, and Hans Castorp stood up as well.<\/p>\n
He took his tray, put it away, and while he did so, he thought about himself. He thought about the fact that he did not even know whether he had slept well, because he had allowed himself a white. And now he went out with people whose sleep is not measured, but awakened, by small voices, by needs, by the word \u201cPapa\u201d.<\/p>\n
It was, esteemed female reader, esteemed male reader, as if someone had shown him a different kind of curve.<\/p>\n