They were souring on him as they would have expressed it in their language.

He had never been what might be called popular.

That was hardly the phrase for it; he had merely been liked, but now dislike for him was growing.

His case was not helped by the fact that he was out of luck, couldn't get work, didn't belong to a union, and couldn't gain admission to one.

He got a good many slights of that small ill-defined sort that you can't quite put your finger on, and it was manifest that there was only one thing which protected him from open insult, and that was his muscle.