Winston looked round the little room above Mr Charrington'sshop. As he had thought, Mr Charrington had been happy to rentit to him. He did not even mind that Winston wanted the roomto meet his lover. Everyone, he had said, wanted a place wherethey could be alone and private occasionally.
They had taken the room because during the month of Maythey had made love only one more time. ('It's safe to meetanywhere twice,' Julia had said). Then they had had to see each28other in the street, in a different place every evening and neverfor more than half an hour at a time. The idea of having theirown hiding place, indoors and near home, had been exciting forboth of them.
They were fools, Winston thought again. It was impossible tocome here for more than a few weeks without being caught. Buthe needed her and he felt he deserved her.
Julia was twenty-six years old. She lived in a Party buildingwith thirty other girls ('Always the smell of women! I hatewomen!' she said) and she worked, as he had guessed, on thestory-writing machines. She enjoyed her job, looking after apowerful electric motor. She was 'not clever' and 'did not muchenjoy reading' but she liked machinery. Life, as she saw it, wasquite simple. You wanted a good time, they (meaning the Party)wanted to stop you having it, so you broke the rules as well asyou could.
At that moment he heard her on the stairs outside and thenshe ran into the room. She was carrying a bag. She went downon her knees, took packets of food from the bag and put them onthe floor. She had real sugar, real bread, real jam. All the goodfood that nobody had seen for years. And then...
'This is the one I'm really proud of. I had to put paper roundit because...'
But she did not have to tell him why she had paper round it.The smell was already filling the room.
'It's coffee,' he said softly. 'Real coffee.'
'It's Inner Party coffee. There's a whole kilo here,' she said.'How did you get it?'
'There's nothing those Inner Party pigs don't have. But ofcourse waiters and servants steal things, and — look, I got a littlepacket of tea as well.'Winston opened the packet. 'It's real tea, not fruit leaves.'
'Yes,' she said. 'But listen, dear. I want you to turn your back on me for three minutes. Go and sit on the other side of the bed.And don't turn round until I tell you.'
Winston looked out of the window. He listened to a womansinging outside with deep feeling. Winston thought she would bequite happy if that June evening never ended. He had neverheard a member of the Party sing like that.
'You can turn round now' said Julia.
He turned round and for a second almost did not recogniseher. He thought she had taken her clothes off. But the change inher was more surprising than that. She had painted her face.He thought the make-up must be from a shop in the prolearea. Her lips were red, her face was smooth; there was evensomething under her eyes to make them brighter. It was not welldone, but Winston did not know that. He had never before seen awoman in the Party with make-up on. Julia looked prettier andmuch more like a woman.
He took her in his arms.
'Do you know what I'm going to do next?' she said. 'I'mgoing to get a real woman's dress from somewhere and wear itinstead of these horrible overalls. In this room I'm going to be awoman, not a Party comrade.'
After they made love they fell asleep, and when Winston wokeup the hands on the clock showed nearly nine — twenty-onehours. He did not move because Julia was sleeping with her headon his arm. Most of her make-up was on the pillow or on him.
They had never talked about marriage; it was impossible, evenif Katherine died. Winston had told Julia about Katherine. Shewas goodthinkful, in Newspeak, unable to think a bad thought. Shedid not like sex. It was just...
'Our duty to the Party.' Julia had said it for him. Just to havechildren. Children who would one day spy on their parents andtell the Party if they said or did anything wrong. In this way thefamily had become part of the Thought Police. Katherine had not told the Thought Police about Winston only because she wastoo stupid to understand his opinions.
Winston had thought about killing Katherine and once nearlydid. But now he and Julia were dead. When you disobeyed theParty you were dead.
Julia woke up and put her hands over her eyes.
'We are the dead,' Winston said.
'We're not dead yet,' said Julia, pressing her body against his.
'We may be together for another six months — a year. Whenthey find us there will be nothing either of us can do for the other.'
'We will tell them everything,' she said. 'Everybody alwaysdoes. They make you feel so much pain.'
'Even if we tell them everything, that's not a betrayal. Thebetrayal would only be if they made me stop loving you.'
She thought about that. 'They can't do that,' she said finally.'It's the one thing they can't do. They can make you say anything- anything - but they can't make you believe it. They can't getinside you.'
'No,' he said, a little more hopefully. 'No, that's quite true. Theycan't get inside you.'
'I'l l get up and make some coffee,' she said. We've got an hour.What time do they turn the lights off at your flats?'
'Twenty-three thirty.'
'It's twenty-three hours at the Party building. But you have toget in earlier than that because ...'
She suddenly reached down from the bed to the floor, pickedup a shoe and threw it hard into the corner of the room.
'What was it?' he said in surprise.
'A rat. I saw his horrible little nose. There's a hole down there.I frightened him, I think.'
'Rats!' said Winston quietly. 'In this room!'
'They're everywhere,' said Julia, without much interest, as shelay down again. 'We've even got them in the kitchen at the Party building. Di d you know they attack children? In some parts ofLondon a woman daren't leave a baby alone for two minutes. Thebig brown ones are the worst. They .. .'
'Stop! Stop!' said Winston, his eyes tightly shut.
'Dearest! You've gone quite pale. What's the matter?'
'They are the most horrible things in the world - rats!'
She put her arms round him but he did not re-open his eyesimmediately.
'I'm sorry,' he said. 'It's nothing. I don't like rats, that's all.'
'Don't worry, dear. We won't have the dirty animals in here. I'l lput something over the hole before we go.'
Julia got out of bed, put on her overalls and made the coffee.The smell was so powerful and exciting that they shut thewindow, worried that somebody outside would notice it and askquestions. And they could taste the real sugar in the coffee - itwas even better than the taste of the coffee itself.
Julia walked round the room with one hand in her pocket anda piece of bread and jam in the other. She looked at the bookswithout interest. She told Winston the best way to repair thetable. She sat down in the old armchair to see if it wascomfortable. She smiled at the old twelve-hour clock.
'How old is that picture over there, do you think?' she asked.'A hundred years old?'
'More. Two hundred. But it's impossible to discover the age ofanything these days.'
She looked at it. 'What is this place?'
'It's a church. Well, that's what it used to be.'When Winston got out of bed it was dark. The room was aworld, a past world, and they were the last two people from itwho were still living.
