1984 - Planet eBook

if it so happened that you wanted to buy it, that’d cost youfour dollars. I can remember when a thing like that wouldhave fetched eight pounds, and eight pounds was—well, Ican’t work it out, but it was a lot of money. But who caresabout genuine antiques nowadays—even the few that’sleft?’Winston immediately paid over the four dollars and slidthe coveted thing into his pocket. What appealed to himabout it was not so much its beauty as the air it seemed topossess of belonging to an age quite different from the presentone. The soft, rainwatery glass was not like any glass thathe had ever seen. The thing was doubly attractive becauseof its apparent uselessness, though he could guess that itmust once have been intended as a paperweight. It was veryheavy in his pocket, but fortunately it did not make muchof a bulge. It was a queer thing, even a compromising thing,for a Party member to have in his possession. Anything old,and for that matter anything beautiful, was always vaguelysuspect. The old man had grown noticeably more cheerfulafter receiving the four dollars. Winston realized that hewould have accepted three or even two.‘There’s another room upstairs that you might care totake a look at,’ he said. ‘There’s not much in it. Just a fewpieces. We’ll do with a light if we’re going upstairs.’He lit another lamp, and, with bowed back, led the wayslowly up the steep and worn stairs and along a tiny passage,into a room which did not give on the street but looked outon a cobbled yard and a forest of chimney-pots. Winstonnoticed that the furniture was still arranged as though the