nwhile he continued to sit and stare jeeringly at me.

"I angrily turned round in bed and made up my mind that I would not say
a word unless he did; so I rested silently on my pillow determined to
remain dumb, if it were to last till morning. I felt resolved that he
should speak first. Probably twenty minutes or so passed in this way.
Suddenly the idea struck me--what if this is an apparition and not
Rogojin himself?

"Neither during my illness nor at any previous time had I ever seen an
apparition;--but I had always thought, both when I was a little boy, and
even now, that if I were to see one I should die on the spot--though I
don't believe in ghosts. And yet NOW, when the idea struck me that this
was a ghost and not Rogojin at all, I was not in the least alarmed.
Nay--the thought actually irritated me. Strangely enough, the decision
of the question as to whether this were a ghost or Rogojin did not, for
some reason or other, interest me nearly so much as it ought to have
done;--I think I began to muse about something altogether different. For
instance, I began to wonder why Rogojin, who had been in dressing--gown
and slippers when I saw him at home, had now put on a dress-coat and
white waistcoat and tie? I also thought to myself, I remember--'if
this is a ghost, and I am not afraid of it, why don't I approach it and
verify my suspicions? Perhaps I am afraid--' And no sooner did this last
idea enter my head than an icy blast blew over me; I felt a chill down
my backbone and my knees shook.

"At this very moment, as though divining my thoughts, Rogojin raised his
head from his arm and began to part his lips as though he were going to
laugh--but he continued to stare at me as persistently as before.

"I felt so furious with him at this moment that I longed to rush at
him; but as I had sworn that he should speak first, I continued to lie
still--and the more willingly, as I was still by no means satisfied as
to whether it really was Rogojin or not.

"I cannot remember how long this lasted; I cannot recollect, either,
whether consciousness forsook me at intervals, or not. But at last
Rogojin rose, staring at me as intently as ever, but not smiling any
longer,--and walking very softly, almost on tip-toes, to the door, he
opened it, went out, and shut it behind him.

"I did not rise from my bed, and I don't know how long I lay with my
eyes open, thinking. I don't know what I thought about, nor how I fell
asleep or bec