“Yes, stay, I have been delirious⁠ ⁠… perhaps I’m delirious now.⁠ ⁠… Stay a moment.”

He got up and seized something that was lying on the uppermost of his three bookshelves. It was a revolver.

“One night, in delirium, I fancied that you were coming to kill me, and early next morning I spent my last farthing on buying a revolver from that good-for-nothing fellow Lyamshin; I did not mean to let you do it. Then I came to myself again⁠ ⁠… I’ve neither powder nor shot; it has been lying there on the shelf till now; wait a minute.⁠ ⁠…”

He got up and was opening the casement.