he thought. Once, when he had seen her in the canteen, she had
looked at h im in a way that filled h im w i th black terror. He even
thought she might be working for the Thought Police. As the
screaming at Goldstein increased, Winston's dislike of the girl
turned to hate. He hated her because she was young and pretty.
Suddenly he noticed someone else, sitting near the girl,
wearing the black overalls of an Inner Party member. O'Brien
was a large man with a thick neck and glasses. Although he
looked frightening, Winston was interested in him. There was
sometimes an intelligence in his face that suggested - perhaps -
that he might question the official Party beliefs.
Winston had seen O'Brien about twelve times in almost as
many years. Years ago he had dreamed about O'Brien. He was in
a dark room and O'Brien had said to him, We shall meet in the
place where there is no dark. 'Winston did not know what that
meant, but he was sure it would happen, one day.
The Hate increased. The screaming increased. The voice and
face of Goldstein became the voice and face of a real sheep. Then
the sheep-face became a Eurasian soldier, walking towards them
with his gun, so close that some people shut their eyes for a
second and moved back in their seats. But at the same moment
the soldier became the face of Big Brother, black-haired,
moustached, filling the telescreen. Nobody could hear what Big
Brother said, but it was enough that he was speaking to them.
Then the face of Big Brother disappeared from the telescreen and
the Party slogans came up instead:
WAR IS PEACE
FREEDOM IS SLAVERY
IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH
Then everybody started shouting 'B-B! B-B!' again and again,
slowly, with a long pause between the first B and the second. Of
course Winston shouted too - you had to. But there was a second