Now, however, circumstances were materially changed.
One thing was tolerably clear to Frank, and this was, that he must give up his agency.

He had tried it, and been unsuccessful.

That is, he had failed to earn money enough to support himself, and this was necessary.
As to what he should take up next, Frank was quite in the dark.

As a boy in a counting room he would be paid not more than four dollars a week, if he could gain such a situation, which was by no means certain.
The more he thought about the matter the more perplexed he felt, and it was in an uncomfortable frame of mind that he came down to breakfast the next morning..