He had worked in a shoe-shop since he was a young man.

There was nothing else in store for him until he was turned out because of old age.
Then the future looked like a lurid sunset of misery.

He earned reasonably good wages for a man of his years, but prices were so high that he was not able to save a cent.

There had been unusual expenses during the past ten years, too.

His wife Sylvia had not been well, and once he himself had been laid up six weeks with rheumatism.