p.

6.

refined table manners. And I'm quite certain that if we
are going to have interesting peopple to our house
after the war - we shall have to reckon with all of
that & take jolly good care not to react at all.
It actually used to worry me a few months ago - how to
reconcile my new found Socialist outlook with my inbred
ideas about speech & table manners & manners in
general. But I have somehow got over all that now -
& whereas I still prefer English as spoken by you
& even myself & food eaten as we eat it, & all the
other forms & customs of good manners which are
founded on good sense & respect for women - they
are comparatively unimportant - & can be deveoped
& adjusted at leisure as the classes even themselves
out.

My darling Barbara, you said you thought that I was developing
& widening in outlook, & I am certain that I am.
And you also said that you thought perhaps you
could discern your influence on me - or were you
being priggish. My own darling, I can assure you
that your influence on me is very real & has helped
me enormously. It has done ever since we knew
each other - & it has done ever since I left you on
the morning of Oct 6th 1940. I really feel myself
that I am in every way a very much better person
than I was in 1934 - & I thank you for all
that. And I do seem to be improving still. You
say that I seem to be able to criticise & keep
a watch on myself - & I do . But what it
really amounts to is that I always ask myself