E-text prepared by Janet Kegg, Mary Meehan, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) THE HOLE IN THE WALL by ARTHUR MORRISON London Eyre & Spottiswoode The Hole in the Wall was first published in 1902 First published in The Century Library, 1947 The Century Library is printed in England by Billing and Sons Ltd., Guildford and Esher, for Eyre & Spottiswoode (Publishers) Ltd., 15 Bedford Street, London, W.C. 2, and bound by James Burn and Company Ltd., Royal Mills, Esher _To_ MRS. CHARLES EARDLEY-WILMOT CONTENTS I. STEPHEN'S TALE II. IN BLUE GATE III. STEPHEN'S TALE IV. STEPHEN'S TALE V. IN THE HIGHWAY VI. STEPHEN'S TALE VII. STEPHEN'S TALE VIII. STEPHEN'S TALE IX. STEPHEN'S TALE X. STEPHEN'S TALE XI. STEPHEN'S TALE XII. IN THE CLUB-ROOM XIII. STEPHEN'S TALE XIV. STEPHEN'S TALE XV. STEPHEN'S TALE XVI. STEPHEN'S TALE XVII. IN BLUE GATE XVIII. ON THE COP XIX. ON THE COP XX. STEPHEN'S TALE XXI. IN THE BAR-PARLOUR XXII. ON THE COP XXIII. ON THE COP XXIV. ON THE COP XXV. STEPHEN'S TALE XXVI. STEPHEN'S TALE XXVII. IN THE BAR-PARLOUR XXVIII. STEPHEN'S TALE XXIX. STEPHEN'S TALE XXX. STEPHEN'S TALE CHAPTER I STEPHEN'S TALE My grandfather was a publican--and a sinner, as you will see. His public-house was the Hole in the Wall, on the river's edge at Wapping; and his sins--all of them that I know of--are recorded in these pages. He was a widower of some small substance, and the Hole in the Wall was not the sum of his resources, for he owned a little wharf on the river Lea. I called him Grandfather Nat, not to distinguish him among a multitude of grandfathers--for indeed I never knew another of my own--but because of affectionate habit; a habit perhaps born of the fact that Nathaniel Kemp was also my father's name. My own is Stephen.