“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.