Two dollars and seventy-five cents of this went for his room rent, one dollar and ninety for his shoes, and Tuesday afternoon he had bought a package of cigarettes for ten cents.

By Saturday morning he had spent seventy-five cents for food.
When the paint-shop gave him enough work it was Vandover's custom to buy a week's commutation ticket at a certain restaurant.

He never ate at the hotel; it was too expensive.

By the commutation system he could buy two dollars and twenty-five cents' worth of meals for two dollars, paying in tickets at each meal.
But such a thing had been impossible this week.

He had been forced to fall back upon the free-lunch system.