Grateful acknowledgement for permission to include the stories and other material in this volume is made to the following authors, editors, literary agents, and publishers:

To the Editor of _The Saturday Evening Post_, the Editor of _The Dial_, the Editor of _The Freeman_, the Editor of _The English Review_, the Editor of _The Century Magazine_, the Editor of _Harpers' Bazar_, the Editor of _The Ladies' Home Journal_, the Editor of _The Chicago Tribune_ Syndicate Service, Alfred A. Knopf, The Golden Cockerel Press, B.W. Huebsch, The Talbot Press, Dodd, Mead and Co., Stacy Aumonier, J.D. Beresford, Algernon Blackwood, Harold Brighouse, William Caine, A.E. Coppard, Miss R.C. Lamburn, Walter de la Mare, Miss Dorothy Easton, Miss May Edginton, John Galsworthy, Alan Graham, Holloway Horn, Rowland Kenney, Miss Rosamond Langbridge, Mrs. Mary St. Leger Harrison, Mrs. J. Middleton Murry, Mrs. Elinor Mordaunt, Max Pemberton, Roland Pertwee, Miss May Sinclair, Sidney Southgate, Mrs. Geoffrey Holdsworth, Mrs. Basil Hargrave, and Hugh Walpole; to Curtis Brown, Ltd., as agent for Stacy Aumonier, May Edginton, Elinor Mordaunt, Roland Pertwee, and May Sinclair; to J.B. Pinker as agent for J.D. Beresford, Walter de la Mare, John Galsworthy, G.B. Stern, and Hugh Walpole; to A.P. Watt and Son as agent for Algernon Blackwood and Lucas Malet; to Andrew H. Dakers as agent for A.E. Coppard; to Cotterill and Cromb as agent for Alan Graham; and to Christy and Moore, Ltd., as agent for Holloway Horn.

Acknowledgements are specially due to _The Boston Evening Transcript_ for permission to reprint the large body of material previously published in its pages. We ask pardon of any one whose rights we may have accidentally overlooked.

We shall be grateful to our readers for corrections, and particularly for suggestions leading to the wider usefulness of this annual volume. We shall particularly welcome the receipt from authors, editors, agents, and publishers, of stories printed during the year beginning July 1, 1922, which have qualities of distinction but yet are not published in periodicals falling under our regular notice. Such communications may be addressed to _Edward J. O'Brien, Forest Hill, Oxfordshire_.

E.J.O.

J.C.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

WHERE WAS WYCH STREET? By Stacy Aumonier (From _The Strand Magazine_ and _The Saturday Evening Post_)

THE LOOKING-GLASS. By J.D. Beresford (From _The Cornhill Magazine_)

THE OLIVE. By Algernon Blackwood (From _Pearson's Magazine, London_)

ONCE A HERO. By Harold Brighouse (From _Pan_)

"THE PENSIONER." By William Caine (From _The Graphic_)

BROADSHEET BALLAD. By A.E. Coppard (From _The Dial_)

THE CHRISTMAS PRESENT. By Richmal Crompton (From _Truth_)

SEATON'S AUNT. By Walter de la Mare (From _The London Mercury_)

THE REAPER. By Dorothy Easton (From _The English Review_)

THE SONG. By May Edginton (From _Lloyd's Story Magazine_)

A HEDONIST. By John Galsworthy (From _Pears' Annual_, 1921 and _The Century Magazine_)

THE BAT AND BELFRY INN. By Alan Graham (From _The Story-Teller_)

THE LIE. By Holloway Horn (From _The Blue Magazine_)

A GIRL IN IT. By Rowland Kenney (From _The New Age_)

THE BACKSTAIRS OF THE MIND. By Rosamond Langbridge (From _The Manchester Guardian_)

THE BIRTH OF A MASTERPIECE. By Lucas Malet (From _The Story-Teller_)

"GENIUS." By Elinor Mordaunt (From _Hutchinson's Magazine_ and _The Century Magazine_)

THE DEVIL TO PAY. By Max Pemberton (From _The Story-Teller_)

EMPTY ARMS. By Roland Pertwee (From _The Ladies' Home Journal_)

LENA WRACE. By May Sinclair (From _The Dial_)