Chapter 7 Summary

The narrator indulges in another long reflection on time and Hans Castorp's distortion of his time sense in the Berghof. Resisting his slide into timelessness, Hans sometimes stares at his ticking watch-hands. Musing about time, for Hans and the narrator, is like strolling by the endless seashore near Hamburg. However, Hans ends by giving himself up to his drift of timelessness, and the narrator hints that the fate of Joachim's unauthorized departure convinces Hans that he has no other choice but to stay.

When Clavdia Chauchat finally returns, Hans Castorp is thrown into confusion when she arrives with a traveling companion, a rich Dutch colonial planter from Java named Pieter Peeperkorn. They sit at the same table and share adjoining rooms in the luxury suite of the Berghof. Hans spies on Peeperkorn at the dining table, and sees him making poised, eloquent gestures...