“ ‘I know a gallant steed by tokens sure,

And by his eyes I know a youth in love,’ ”

“ ‘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?”