“I shall come on Monday next week, latish morning, _with Chapter V_. Not content or pleased. That wireless insertion has put the chapter out of gear, and lots of small things, later on, seem clumsy. One can’t write a book backwards. But I think we can patch it to look all right. I depend on you and the office to go through my revised Chapter V in the interests of consistency rather than of truth. I think the facts are right now, and the chapter is like a plain-faced clumsy person celebrated for saying true things in the wrong time and in the wrong place.”
“Exam papers are pouring in in large bundles. I grudge every minute to them.... I hope and believe that there won’t be another Chapter V.”
Chapter V was sent to the printers for proofs. In the meantime Sir Walter had sent the chapter to one or two people to read over the wireless portion. Sir Richard Glazebrook sent him some valuable notes.
“I have just got the proofs of Chapter V. I am an unnatural parent--I yawn over them. But I could do something to them while I am in the country and thus break the tedium of a holiday, if I might have the Glazebrook notes.” He could not take--what he badly needed--a real carefree holiday. “I am taking down Chapter VI for a week into the country, where American and other visitors to Oxford can’t call on me at 11 a.m. I hope to finish it.”
“I am drafting a Preface. What is our office called?... The Preface, I think, will be very brief, and will try to avoid the sin of prefaces, which mostly speak with the voice of a hen when she has laid an egg.... Some civilians must be mentioned. C. G. Grey certainly, and I should like your opinion on the others....”
The question of names in the Preface was debated. Wherever possible they were instead acknowledged in the text.
“I enclose a draft Preface. Will you see what you think of it? It gets into a flowing style before it ends, but the important thing is--does it say all it ought to say?
“I am jolly glad to be relieved of the necessity of giving long lists of helpers’ names. They only cumber a book, and are tombstones that are read by none but the corpse.”
There were still a few outstanding questions. The index was one which caused a certain amount of discussion. He was anxious not to have an index for each volume. He contended that there must eventually be a final index and that this could only be made by combining the indexes from each volume which he thought was clumsy. So it was decided not to have an index, but instead to have rather full summaries of each chapter.