He tried to be neat in his dress, in spite of his extreme poverty.

He refrained again from appealing to Varvara Petrovna, and struggled along as best he could, doing various jobs for tradespeople.

At one time he served in a shop, at another he was on the point of going as an assistant clerk on a freight steamer, but he fell ill just at the time of sailing.

It is hard to imagine what poverty he was capable of enduring without thinking about it at all.

After his illness Varvara Petrovna sent him a hundred roubles, anonymously and in secret.