"Shut the door; stay, I'll shut it." He locked the door, returned to the table, and sat down, facing Nikolay Vsyevolodovitch.

He had grown thinner during that week, and now he seemed in a fever.
"You've been worrying me to death," he said, looking down, in a soft half-whisper.

"Why didn't you come ?" "You were so sure I should come then ?" "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.