then it was precisely the amateur spy who
was the greatest danger of all. He did not know how long she had been
looking at him, but perhaps for as much as five minutes, and it was
possible that his features had not been perfectly under control. It was
terribly dangerous to let your thoughts wander when you were in any public
place or within range of a telescreen. The smallest thing could give you
away. A nervous tic, an unconscious look of anxiety, a habit of muttering
to yourself -- anything that carried with it the suggestion of abnormality,
of having something to hide. In any case, to wear an improper expression on
your face (to look incredulous when a victory was announced, for example)
was itself a punishable offence. There was even a word for it in Newspeak:
facecrime, it was called.
The girl had turned her back on him again. Perhaps after all she was
not really following him about, perhaps it was coincidence that she had sat
so close to him two days running. His cigarette had gone out, and he laid
it carefully on the edge of the table. He would finish smoking it after
work, if he could keep the tobacco in it. Quite likely the person at the
next t