‘Is it your own?’

‘Yes,’ said I, ‘I may call it my own, though I borrowed the money to purchase it.’

‘Well, why don’t you sell it?’

‘It is not always easy to find a purchaser for a horse like this,’ said I; ‘can you recommend me one?’

‘I? Why, no, not exactly: but you’ll find a purchaser shortly—pooh! If you have no other cause for disquiet than that horse, cheer up, man; don’t be cast down. Have you nothing else on your mind? By-the-by, what’s become of the young woman you were keeping company with in that queer lodging-place of yours?’

‘She has left me,’ said I.

‘You quarrelled, I suppose?’

‘No,’ said I, ‘we did not exactly quarrel, but we are parted.’

‘Well,’ replied he, ‘but you will soon come together again.’

‘No,’ said I; ‘we are parted for ever.’