‘Ah, but that’s the point,’ said Dr West. He said it briskly. He was an altogether brisk, competent man. He added, teasing Ella: ‘Unless the whole system’s changed of course. Our Ella’s a revolutionary without knowing it.’ ‘I imagined,’ said Ella, ‘that we all wanted the system changed.’ But that was altogether the wrong note. Dr West involuntarily frowned, then smiled. ‘But of course we do,’ he said. ‘And the sooner the better.’ The Wests voted for the Labour Party. That Dr West was ‘Labour’ was a matter of pride to Patricia Brent, who was a Tory. Her tolerance was thus proved. Ella had no politics, but she was also important to Patricia, for the ironical reason that she made no secret of the contempt she felt for the magazine. She shared an office with Patricia. The atmosphere of this office, and all the others connected with the magazine had the same atmosphere, the atmosphere of the magazine — coy, little-womanish, snobbish. And all the women working there seemed to acquire the same tone, despite themselves, even Patricia herself, who was not at all like this. For Patricia was kind, hearty, direct, full of a battling self-respect. Yet in the office she would say things quite out of character, and Ella, afraid for herself, criticized her for it. Then she went on to say that while they were both in a position where they had to earn their livings, they didn’t have to lie to themselves about what they had to do. She had expected, even half-wished, that Patricia would tell her to leave. Instead she had been taken out to an expensive lunch where Patricia defended herself. It turned out that for her this job was a defeat. She had been fashion editress of one of the big smart women’s magazines, but apparently had not been considered up to it. It was a magazine with a fashionable cultural gloss, and it was necessary to have an editress with a nose for what was fashionable in the arts. Patricia had no feeling at all for the cultural band-wagon, which, as far as Ella was concerned, was a point in her favour, but the proprietor of this particular group of women’s magazines had shifted Patricia over to Women at Home, which was angled towards working-class women, and had not even a pretence of cultural tone. Patricia was now well-suited for her work, and it was this which secretly chagrined her. She had wistfully enjoyed the atmosphere of the other magazine which had fashionable authors and artists associated with it. She was the daughter of a county family, rich but philistine; her childhood had been well supported by servants, and it was this, an early contact with ‘the lower-classes’ — she referred to them as such, inside the office, coyly; outside, unself-consciously — that gave her her shrewd direct understanding of what to serve her readers.