I

had happened at last. The expected message had come.
All his life, it seemed to him, he had been waiting for this
to happen.

---

He was walking down the long corridor at the Minis-
try and he was almost at the spot where Julia had slipped
the note into his hand when he became aware that some-
one larger than himself was walking just behind him. The
person, whoever it was, gave a small cough, evidently as a
prelude to speaking. Winston stopped abruptly and turned.
It was O’Brien.

---

At last they were face to face, and it seemed that his only
impulse was to run away. His heart bounded violently. He
would have been incapable of speaking. O’Brien, however,
had continued forward in the same movement, laying a
friendly hand for a moment on Winston’s arm, so that the
two of them were walking side by side. He began speak

---

ing with the peculiar grave courtesy that differentiated him
from the majority of Inner Party members.
‘I had been hoping for an opportunity of talking to you,’
he said. ‘I was reading one of your Newspeak articles **in
‘The Times’ the other day. You take a scholarly interest in
Newspeak, I believe?’

quoteWinston had recovered part of his self-possession.
‘Hardly scholarly,’ he said. ‘I’m only an amateur. It’s not my.
subject. I have never had anything to do with the actual
construction of the language
But you write it very elegantly said O’Brien That is not
only my own opinion. I was talking recently to a friend of
yours who is certainly an expert. His name has slipped my
memory for the moment.’
Again Winston’s heart stirred painfully. It was incon-
ceivable that this was anything other than a reference to
Syme. But Syme was not only dead, he was abolished, an
unperson. Any identifiable reference to him would have
been mortally dangerous. O’Brien’s remark must obviously
have been intended as a signal, a codeword. By sharing a
small act of thoughtcrime he had turned the two of them
into accomplices. They had continued to stroll slowly down
the corridor, but now O’Brien halted. With the curious, dis-
arming friendliness that he always managed to put in to the
gesture he resettled his spectacles on his nose. Then he went
on