So Peters, for that was the young man's name, dragged himself up and down the city trying to find an opening, no matter how small.

He was too old to begin as a clerk and too much of a bumpkin for anything else, and he found that nobody had any use for a young man of his particular type and training.

At last, in despair, he hired desk-room in an office, shared jointly by half a dozen young men like himself, and waited for something to turn up; but nothing came.

His bank account fell lower and lower, and he became more and more shabby.

Moreover, he was eating his heart out with disappointment, for he could not return to his native town and confess himself a failure.
From time to time he would drop into his prosperous friend's offices, but the latter never had anything to turn over to him and he would return dejectedly to his own solitary desk.