1984 - Planet eBook

fell apart. The sun seemed to have grown hotter. They wereboth sleepy. He reached out for the discarded overalls andpulled them partly over her. Almost immediately they fellasleep and slept for about half an hour.Winston woke first. He sat up and watched the freckledface, still peacefully asleep, pillowed on the palm of herhand. Except for her mouth, you could not call her beautiful.There was a line or two round the eyes, if you lookedclosely. The short dark hair was extraordinarily thick andsoft. It occurred to him that he still did not know her surnameor where she lived.The young, strong body, now helpless in sleep, awoke inhim a pitying, protecting feeling. But the mindless tendernessthat he had felt under the hazel tree, while the thrushwas singing, had not quite come back. He pulled the overallsaside and studied her smooth white flank. In the olddays, he thought, a man looked at a girl’s body and saw thatit was desirable, and that was the end of the story. But youcould not have pure love or pure lust nowadays. No emotionwas pure, because everything was mixed up with fearand hatred. Their embrace had been a battle, the climax avictory. It was a blow struck against the Party. It was a politicalact.