On a walk along a mountain path after first breakfast, Hans notices with annoyance that his beloved Maria Mancini cigars have lost their flavor. He is further annoyed when a female patient coming down the path makes a peculiar whistling sound at him as other patients laugh. Joachim later explains that the patient, Hermine Kleefeld, has had a lung operation in which one lung is temporarily filled with nitrogen to let it heal, allowing her to whistle with her pneumothorax. The group with her calls itself the Half-Lung Club. Joachim struggles to explain to Hans that illness and death aren't taken seriously "up here," and that "it's more like loafing around." Deaths of patients are kept very discreet, with bodies removed during meals and at night. Joachim tells of a Catholic patient,.....
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