"Why?" "I know a gallant steed by tokens sure, And by his eyes I know a youth in love," declaimed Stepan Arkadyevitch.

" Everything is before you.

" "Why, is it over for you already?" "No; not over exactly, but the future is yours, and the present is mine, and the present--well, it's not all that it might be.

" "How so?" "Oh, things go wrong.

But I don't want to talk of myself, and besides I can't explain it all," said Stepan Arkadyevitch.