Trelkovsky rented the small and shabby apartment - even though and shabby apartment - even though the former tenant had hurled herself screaming through the window. Even though her presence - and her madness - seemed tp seep through the damp walls. Even though the dead woman still lived in that apartment. A superstitious person, a fearful person, would not have rented it. But Trelkovsky did. For better, or for worse, he was the tenant.