1984 - Planet eBook

in it as handfuls of dust and splinters of bone. But how faraway that future may be, there is no knowing. It might bea thousand years. At present nothing is possible except toextend the area of sanity little by little. We cannot act collectively.We can only spread our knowledge outwards fromindividual to individual, generation after generation. In theface of the Thought Police there is no other way.’He halted and looked for the third time at his wristwatch.‘It is almost time for you to leave, comrade,’ he said to Julia.‘Wait. The decanter is still half full.’He filled the glasses and raised his own glass by thestem.‘What shall it be this time?’ he said, still with the samefaint suggestion of irony. ‘To the confusion of the ThoughtPolice? To the death of Big Brother? To humanity? To thefuture?’‘To the past,’ said Winston.‘The past is more important,’ agreed O’Brien gravely.They emptied their glasses, and a moment later Juliastood up to go. O’Brien took a small box from the top of acabinet and handed her a flat white tablet which he told herto place on her tongue. It was important, he said, not to goout smelling of wine: the lift attendants were very observant.As soon as the door had shut behind her he appearedto forget her existence. He took another pace or two up anddown, then stopped.‘There are details to be settled,’ he said. ‘I assume thatyou have a hiding-place of some kind?’