1984 - Planet eBook

him within five minutes of reading the note; but now, withtime to think, he went over them one by one, as though layingout a row of instruments on a table.Obviously the kind of encounter that had happened thismorning could not be repeated. If she had worked in the RecordsDepartment it might have been comparatively simple,but he had only a very dim idea whereabouts in the buildingthe Fiction Department lay, and he had no pretext for goingthere. If he had known where she lived, and at what timeshe left work, he could have contrived to meet her somewhereon her way home; but to try to follow her home wasnot safe, because it would mean loitering about outside theMinistry, which was bound to be noticed. As for sendinga letter through the mails, it was out of the question. Bya routine that was not even secret, all letters were openedin transit. Actually, few people ever wrote letters. For themessages that it was occasionally necessary to send, therewere printed postcards with long lists of phrases, and youstruck out the ones that were inapplicable. In any case hedid not know the girl’s name, let alone her address. Finallyhe decided that the safest place was the canteen. If hecould get her at a table by herself, somewhere in the middleof the room, not too near the telescreens, and with a sufficientbuzz of conversation all round—if these conditionsendured for, say, thirty seconds, it might be possible to exchangea few words.For a week after this, life was like a restless dream. Onthe next day she did not appear in the canteen until hewas leaving it, the whistle having already blown. Presum-