Would he have to go personally and ask; wait outside an office door, and, then, distinguished and affluent looking, announce that he was looking for something to do?
He strained painfully at the thought.

No, he could not do that.
He really strolled about, thinking, and then, the weather being cold, stepped into a hotel.

He knew hotels well enough to know that any decent individual was welcome to a chair in the lobby.

This was in the Broadway Central, which was then one of the most important hotels in the city.
Taking a chair here was a painful thing to him.

To think he should come to this! He had heard loungers about hotels called chair warmers.