"I know what you mean; but I want both; for contrast perhaps; no, that's
silly; the grey days for their own sake, the misty atmosphere. Fog. I
think a real London fog is perfection; everything and the shapes and
outlines of things looming up only as you pass them. Wonderful."
"Well, there you leave us behind. I can't see anything either beautiful
or in the least wonderful in your town fogs."
"Quite so. A taste for town fog is an artificial taste. Town fog's not a
natural phenomenon. It's just, town dirt."
"I don't care how it begins. It's perfect. It makes the whole day an
adventure even if you're indoors. It's perfect to have the light on and
nothing to be seen outside but a copper glare. Outside is a glorious
adventure in a new unknown world.... In a way all our weathers are that.
In a way the weather's enough, in itself, without anything else."
"That seems to me a remarkable, a very extra-ordinairy point of view.
You can't in any circumstances make it a general defence of your
climate. It's a purely personal notion."
"It isn't. Even people who say they don't like fogs are different;
interested in the effect while it is on."
"Uneasy, no doubt, like animals in a trap."
"I refer to Miss Henderson's extra-ordinairy valuation of weather as
enough in itself. I consider that is one of _the_ most _extra-ordinairy_
points of view I ever heard stated."
"No one can deny the quahl-ty of interest to the vagaries of your
western European climut; from our point of view it's all interest and no
climut; ye can't tell from day to day what season ye'll be in and they
all seem--stormy."
"The seasons crop up all the year round, sometimes three in one day.
That's just the fascinating thing."
"Quite so, we find that varry disturbing."
"Our sudden changes of temperature keep us hardy."
"That's true; you're a hardy people. Your weather suits you, beyond a
doubt."
"In _Ireland_, the weather changes every few minutes."
"Hah, Wayneflete."
"Granted. No doubt that assisted my parents to decide to leave; I don't
wonder at it."
"You're temperate. You've got the sea at a stone's throw all round. You
don't have notable extremes. But there's our trouble. Your extremes when
they come ain't arranged for. There's no heat like your English heat,
and my word your English houses in the winter'd take some beating."
"You mean boarding-houses."
"Not entirely. Though I admit your English hoames are unique in the
matter of comfort. There's nothing in the world like a real good
_English hoame_. And not only in the matter of comfort."
"Yes but look here von Heber. I know your fine English parlours with
fine great fires to sit around, what they call 'cosy' over here, but my
life why don't they warm their corridors and sleeping rooms?"
"We don't be_cause_ it's unhealthy. A cold bedroom keeps you hardy and
you _sleep_ better."