Learn English – What do you call a sick person who is lying in bed

There are a few metaphors that occur in Jo's Boys that resemble what you're talking about.

pp. 263: "They'd see and smell and feel the prison taint on me..."

pp. 327: "He longed to go home, but waited week after week to get the prison taint off him and the haggard look out of his face."

pp. 338: "All the old prison gloom seemed to settle like a black cloud on Dan's face..."

pp. 343: "... and to help wear away the first sharpness of the prison brand."

"Hole in the wall"?

Here's the definition from Oxford Dictionaries:

hole in the wall 1. chiefly North American A small dingy place, especially a bar or restaurant

Another definition from English Daily:

Definition A small, simple place, particularly a shop or restaurant

Example Let's go to the Italian restaurant on Smith Street. It's just a hole in the wall, but the food is excellent.

Etymology This phrase has been used since the early 1800s. A 'hole' is an empty space, and a 'wall' is part of a building. So a 'hole in the wall' is a simple, undecorated space in a building.

Note that today it is almost always used about food establishments; less so about shops.