Certain words and phrases that capture the author’s unstable financial status are- possessing a “tiny apartment”, “I was earning barely enough to keep body and soul together”. Regarding his visit to Foyot, he said, “it was so far beyond my means” and his “heart sank a little” as the lady ordered salmon for the luncheon and he said to himself, “I could not afford caviar”. Again, as the lady friend ordered asparagus, the narrator’s “heart sank”. Finally, while coming out of the restaurant, the narrator was thinking of how he would plan his expenditures with the meager sum that was left with him to last for the month and said, “not a penny in my pocket”.