They went back nevertheless.<\/p>\n
Not heroically, not with a great decision, but with that mixture of persistence and chance that Hans Castorp knows from his life: You go because you go. You go because the feet go. You go because otherwise you stay standing.<\/p>\n
Gustav walked slowly.<\/p>\n
Hans Castorp walked beside him, kept distance and closeness at the same time, as one does when one does not want to humiliate and not to lose.<\/p>\n
In the hotel it was cooler.<\/p>\n
The lobby smelled of flowers and polish; a scent that pretends there are no bodies. And precisely for that reason Hans Castorp noticed the second smell: again that disinfectant quality, now stronger, in the corners, in the corridors.<\/p>\n
Gustav sat down in one of the upholstered groups.<\/p>\n
A waiter came, asked if he could bring him something.<\/p>\n
Gustav said:<\/p>\n
\u201cWater.\u201d<\/p>\n
The waiter brought a bottle.<\/p>\n
Hans Castorp looked at the label: \u201cnaturale\u201d.<\/p>\n
Gustav drank.<\/p>\n
He drank too fast, and Hans Castorp thought of dehydration, of circulation, of all that which one knows and yet does not want to know.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe should\u2026\u201d began Hans Castorp.<\/p>\n
Gustav looked at him.<\/p>\n
\u201cDo you want to fetch the lion now?\u201d he asked, and suddenly there was, in his voice, an echo of the fable: the tiger who runs to the authority because he is right.<\/p>\n
Hans Castorp blushed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t want to argue,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Gustav smiled barely noticeably.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd yet you do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Hans Castorp was silent.<\/p>\n
Gustav stood up.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going up to the room,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Hans Castorp nodded.<\/p>\n
He accompanied him as far as the stairs.<\/p>\n
Gustav went up, step by step, as if every step were a sentence.<\/p>\n
Hans Castorp remained standing below.<\/p>\n
He watched him go.<\/p>\n
And he thought, with a clarity that clenched his stomach: This is the moment when one should leave. Now. Not later.<\/p>\n
He did not do it.<\/p>\n
He stayed.<\/p>\n