Lao She had the feeling that she was going to stay a spinster for life. This is the stuff of which novels of trivia are based. But the students are not the only ones to blame. These words seemed to suggest that the students were often well behaved, seldom taking the active role in the courting game. She was of course speaking from his own experiences.
Fog can appear at any time of the year.
When it is foggy one can hardly see the sun. Lao She had come from Peking which has a typically continental kind of climate, with a raw wind blowing in from the Loess Plateau. Naturally, he found it difficult to get used to English weather if only because it is so unpredictable. Lao She could not afford them. He used to wear the same khaki suit the whole year round, putting on an additional pullover only when it was really cold.