| Nevertheless it had been very difficult not to betray a momentary surprise, for in the two or three seconds while he was helping her up the girl had slipped something into his hand. | И все-таки Уинстон лишь с большим трудом сдержал удивление: за те две-три секунды, пока он помогал девице встать, она что-то сунула ему в руку. |
| There was no question that she had done it intentionally. | О случайности тут не могло быть и речи. |
| It was something small and flat. | Что-то маленькое и плоское. |
| As he passed through the lavatory door he transferred it to his pocket and felt it with the tips of his fingers. | Входя в уборную, Уинстон сунул эту вещь в карман и там ощупал. |
| It was a scrap of paper folded into a square. | Листок бумаги, сложенный квадратиком. |
| While he stood at the urinal he managed, with a little more fingering, to get it unfolded. | Перед писсуаром он сумел после некоторой возни в кармане расправить листок. |
| Obviously there must be a message of some kind written on it. | По всей вероятности, там что-то написано. |
| For a moment he was tempted to take it into one of the water-closets and read it at once. | У него возникло искушение сейчас же зайти в кабинку и прочесть. |
| But that would be shocking folly, as he well knew. | Но это, понятно, было бы чистым безумием. |
| There was no place where you could be more certain that the telescreens were watched continuously. | Где, как не здесь, за телекранами наблюдают беспрерывно? |
| He went back to his cubicle, sat down, threw the fragment of paper casually among the other papers on the desk, put on his spectacles and hitched the speakwrite towards him. | Он вернулся к себе, сел, небрежно бросил листок на стол к другим бумагам, надел очки и придвинул речение. |
| 'Five minutes,' he told himself, 'five minutes at the very least!' | Пять минут, сказал он себе, пять минут самое меньшее! |
| His heart bumped in his breast with frightening loudness. | Стук сердца в груди был пугающе громок. |
| Fortunately the piece of work he was engaged on was mere routine, the rectification of a long list of figures, not needing close attention. | К счастью, работа его ждала рутинная -уточнить длинную колонку цифр -- и сосредоточенности не требовала. |
| Whatever was written on the paper, it must have some kind of political meaning. | Что бы ни было в записке, она наверняка политическая. |
| So far as he could see there were two possibilities. | Уинстон мог представить себе два варианта. |
| One, much the more likely, was that the girl was an agent of the Thought Police, just as he had feared. | Один, более правдоподобный: женщина -- агент полиции мыслей, чего он и боялся. |
| He did not know why the Thought Police should choose to deliver their messages in such a fashion, but perhaps they had their reasons. | Непонятно, зачем полиции мыслей прибегать к такой почте, но, видимо, для этого есть резоны. |
| The thing that was written on the paper might be a threat, a summons, an order to commit suicide, a trap of some description. | В записке может быть угроза, вызов, приказ покончить с собой, западня какого-то рода. |
| But there was another, wilder possibility that kept raising its head, though he tried vainly to suppress it. | Существовало другое, дикое предположение, Уинстон гнал его от себя, но оно упорно лезло в голову. |
