1984 - Planet eBook

or outside. There were four others on the committee, all ofthem persons similar to himself. There were days when theyassembled and then promptly dispersed again, frankly admittingto one another that there was not really anything tobe done. But there were other days when they settled downto their work almost eagerly, making a tremendous showof entering up their minutes and drafting long memorandawhich were never finished—when the argument as to whatthey were supposedly arguing about grew extraordinarilyinvolved and abstruse, with subtle haggling over definitions,enormous digressions, quarrels—threats, even, to appeal tohigher authority. And then suddenly the life would go outof them and they would sit round the table looking at oneanother with extinct eyes, like ghosts fading at cock-crow.The telescreen was silent for a moment. Winston raisedhis head again. The bulletin! But no, they were merelychanging the music. He had the map of Africa behind hiseyelids. The movement of the armies was a diagram: a blackarrow tearing vertically southward, and a white arrow horizontallyeastward, across the tail of the first. As though forreassurance he looked up at the imperturbable face in theportrait. Was it conceivable that the second arrow did noteven exist?His interest flagged again. He drank another mouthful ofgin, picked up the white knight and made a tentative move.Check. But it was evidently not the right move, because——Uncalled, a memory floated into his mind. He saw acandle-lit room with a vast white-counterpaned bed, andhimself, a boy of nine or ten, sitting on the floor, shaking