He said it as if it were an accusation.<\/p>\n
Hans Castorp was silent.<\/p>\n
He thought of Tonio.<\/p>\n
He thought of the person in the salon who had said: \u201cWe are bourgeois. We love order.\u201d<\/p>\n
He thought: Perhaps this here is the ultimate form of bourgeois order: to work on the face until it once again fits into the category one can bear.<\/p>\n
The barber came back.<\/p>\n
He did not take the cloth off Gustav; he only lifted it up in one place and checked, as if he were checking a dough.<\/p>\n
\u201cBene,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He led Gustav to the sink.<\/p>\n
He laid his head back, and Gustav, who just now had still been discipline, was now a neck, exposed, backwards, like a patient.<\/p>\n
Water flowed.<\/p>\n
The water was warm.<\/p>\n
Hans Castorp felt how his body had a small irritation at the sound of the water: the sign, the recommendation, the \u201cdo not drink.\u201d And here it flowed, naturally, unproblematically, over a man\u2019s head.<\/p>\n
Many things are recommended, thought Hans Castorp.<\/p>\n
Nothing is guaranteed.<\/p>\n
The barber rinsed.<\/p>\n
The dark mass ran off.<\/p>\n
It colored the water for a moment.<\/p>\n
It was a brown, reddish tone.<\/p>\n
For a moment it looked like a small harbinger of what one does not yet want to see.<\/p>\n
Gustav straightened up.<\/p>\n
He went back to the mirror.<\/p>\n
The hair was darker.<\/p>\n
It was no longer gray.<\/p>\n
It was\u2026 no longer true.<\/p>\n
The barber dried.<\/p>\n
He blow-dried.<\/p>\n
He combed.<\/p>\n
He cut a little more.<\/p>\n
Then he took a small tin.<\/p>\n
Powder.<\/p>\n
Yes.<\/p>\n
Powder.<\/p>\n
He dabbed Gustav\u2019s forehead with it.<\/p>\n
He dabbed his cheeks.<\/p>\n
He dabbed as if he had to make the face matte so that it would not betray that something is working underneath: sweat, blood, fear.<\/p>\n
Hans Castorp saw Gustav open his mouth minimally, as if he wanted to say: No.<\/p>\n
He did not say it.<\/p>\n
The barber took a little bottle.<\/p>\n
Perfume.<\/p>\n
He sprayed.<\/p>\n
A scent, sweet and strict at the same time, settled in the air like a second mask, invisible but effective.<\/p>\n
\u201cPerfetto,\u201d said the barber.<\/p>\n
Gustav looked at himself.<\/p>\n
He smiled.<\/p>\n
Not broadly.<\/p>\n
Only briefly.<\/p>\n
But this small smile was, for Hans Castorp, the real stab. For it showed: A person is willing to deny himself if it makes things easier for him for a moment.<\/p>\n
Hans Castorp stood up.<\/p>\n
He stepped closer to Gustav.<\/p>\n
He looked at him.<\/p>\n
Gustav looked younger.<\/p>\n
Yes.<\/p>\n
But he did not look young.<\/p>\n
He looked like a man who wants to look young.<\/p>\n
And that, esteemed female reader, esteemed male reader, is a difference one feels immediately, even if one cannot explain it.<\/p>\n
For the desire is visible.<\/p>\n
It is the real mask.<\/p>\n