The interpolated story told in 'The Poor Pensioner' is by Harriet Parr ('Holme Lee'). The Introduction [from the start to 'Her name, as I learnt on further inquiry, was Hester', p. 603] and Conclusion [from 'After this, her money being lost or exhausted' to the end, p. 607] to 'The Poor Pensioner', however, is part of the framework of The Holly-Tree Inn - part, that is, of the linking and bridging sections that Dickens usually wrote himself. See also The Seven Poor Travellers and The Holly-Tree Inn [1855 Christmas].

Harry Stone; © Bloomington and Indiana University Press, 1968. DJO gratefully acknowledges permission to reproduce this material.

Neither the opening nor the concluding paragraphs, which link the story to the framework, are set off typographically from the story itself. Miss Parr reprinted the entire item.