1984 - Planet eBook

The words of these songs were composed without any humanintervention whatever on an instrument known as aversificator. But the woman sang so tunefully as to turn thedreadful rubbish into an almost pleasant sound. He couldhear the woman singing and the scrape of her shoes on theflagstones, and the cries of the children in the street, andsomewhere in the far distance a faint roar of traffic, and yetthe room seemed curiously silent, thanks to the absence ofa telescreen.Folly, folly, folly! he thought again. It was inconceivablethat they could frequent this place for more than a fewweeks without being caught. But the temptation of having ahiding-place that was truly their own, indoors and near athand, had been too much for both of them. For some timeafter their visit to the church belfry it had been impossibleto arrange meetings. Working hours had been drasticallyincreased in anticipation of Hate Week. It was more thana month distant, but the enormous, complex preparationsthat it entailed were throwing extra work on to everybody.Finally both of them managed to secure a free afternoon onthe same day. They had agreed to go back to the clearingin the wood. On the evening beforehand they met brieflyin the street. As usual, Winston hardly looked at Julia asthey drifted towards one another in the crowd, but fromthe short glance he gave her it seemed to him that she waspaler than usual.‘It’s all off,’ she murmured as soon as she judged it safe tospeak. ‘Tomorrow, I mean.’‘What?’