The dreariest season of the year had now set in, but frost and cold were very seldom felt severely in Weircombe.

The little village lay in a deep warm hollow, and was thoroughly protected at the back by the hills, while in the front its shores were washed by the sea, which had a warming as well as bracing effect on the atmosphere.

To invalids requiring an equable temperature, it would have been a far more ideal winter resort than any corner of the much-vaunted Riviera, except indeed for the fact that feeding and gambling dens were not among its attractions.

To "society" people it would have proved insufferably dull, because society people, lacking intelligence to do anything themselves, always want everything done for them.

Weircombe folk would not have understood that method of living.