1984 - Planet eBook

Chapter 8They had done it, they had done it at last!The room they were standing in was long-shaped andsoftly lit. The telescreen was dimmed to a low murmur; therichness of the dark-blue carpet gave one the impression oftreading on velvet. At the far end of the room O’Brien wassitting at a table under a green-shaded lamp, with a mass ofpapers on either side of him. He had not bothered to look upwhen the servant showed Julia and Winston in.Winston’s heart was thumping so hard that he doubtedwhether he would be able to speak. They had done it, theyhad done it at last, was all he could think. It had been a rashact to come here at all, and sheer folly to arrive together;though it was true that they had come by different routesand only met on O’Brien’s doorstep. But merely to walk intosuch a place needed an effort of the nerve. It was only onvery rare occasions that one saw inside the dwelling-placesof the Inner Party, or even penetrated into the quarterof the town where they lived. The whole atmosphere of thehuge block of flats, the richness and spaciousness of everything,the unfamiliar smells of good food and good tobacco,the silent and incredibly rapid lifts sliding up and down, thewhite-jacketed servants hurrying to and fro—everythingwas intimidating. Although he had a good pretext for cominghere, he was haunted at every step by the fear that a