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pierce right into him and for a moment had filled dado la impresión de ser más peligrosa que la
him with black terror. The idea had even crossed mayoría. Una vez que se cruzaron en el corredor, la
his mind that she might be an agent of the joven le dirigió una rápida mirada oblicua que por
Thought Police. That, it was true, was very unos momentos dejó aterrado a Winston. Incluso se
unlikely. Still, he continued to feel a peculiar le había ocurrido que podía ser una agente de la
uneasiness, which had fear mixed up in it as well Policía del Pensamiento. No era, desde luego, muy
as hostility, whenever she was anywhere near probable. Sin embargo, Winston siguió sintiendo
him. una intranquilidad muy especial cada vez que la
muchacha se hallaba cerca de él, una mezcla de
miedo y hostilidad.

The other person was a man named O'Brien, a La otra persona era un hombre llamado O'Brien,
member of the Inner Party and holder of some miembro del Partido Interior y titular de un cargo
post so important and remote that Winston had tan remoto e importante, que Winston tenía una idea
only a dim idea of its nature. A momentary hush muy confusa de qué se trataba. Un rápido murmullo
passed over the group of people round the chairs pasó por el grupo ya instalado en las sillas cuando
as they saw the black overalls of an Inner Party vieron acercarse el «mono» negro de un miembro
member approaching. O'Brien was a large, burly del Partido Interior. O'Brien era un hombre
man with a thick neck and a coarse, humorous, corpulento con un ancho cuello y un rostro basto,
brutal face. In spite of his formidable appearance brutal, y sin embargo rebosante de buen humor. A
he had a certain charm of manner. He had a trick pesar de su formidable aspecto, sus modales eran
of resettling his spectacles on his nose which was bastante agradables. Solía ajustarse las gafas con un
curiously disarming—in some indefinable way, gesto que tranquilizaba a sus interlocutores, un
curiously civilized. It was a gesture which, if gesto que tenía algo de civilizado, y esto era
anyone had still thought in such terms, might sorprendente tratándose de algo tan leve. Ese gesto
have recalled an eighteenth-century nobleman — si alguien hubiera sido capaz de pensar así
offering his snuffbox. Winston had seen O'Brien todavía — podía haber recordado a un aristócrata
perhaps a dozen times in almost as many years. del siglo XVI ofreciendo rapé en su cajita. Winston
He felt deeply drawn to him, and not solely había visto a O'Brien quizás sólo una docena de
because he was intrigued by the contrast between veces en otros tantos años. Sentíase fuertemente
O'Brien's urbane manner and his prize-fighter's atraído por él y no sólo porque le intrigaba el
physique. Much more it was because of a secretly contraste entre los delicados modales de O'Brien y
held belief —or perhaps not even a belief, merely su aspecto de campeón de lucha libre, sino mucho
a hope— that O'Brien's political orthodoxy was más por una convicción secreta que quizás ni
not perfect. Something in his face suggested it siquiera fuera una convicción, sino sólo una
irresistibly. And again, perhaps it was not even esperanza — de que la ortodoxia política de O'Brien
unorthodoxy that was written in his face, but no era perfecta. Algo había en su cara que le
simply intelligence. But at any rate he had the impulsaba a uno a sospecharlo irresistiblemente. Y
appearance of being a person that you could talk quizás no fuera ni siquiera heterodoxia lo que estaba
to if somehow you could cheat the telescreen and escrito en su rostro, sino, sencillamente,
get him alone. Winston had never made the inteligencia. Pero de todos modos su aspecto era el
smallest effort to verify this guess: indeed, there de una persona a la cual se le podría hablar si, de
was no way of doing so. At this moment O'Brien algún modo, se pudiera eludir la telepantalla y
glanced at his wrist-watch, saw that it was nearly llevarlo aparte. Winston no había hecho nunca el
eleven hundred, and evidently decided to stay in menor esfuerzo para comprobar su sospecha y es
the Records Department until the Two Minutes que, en verdad, no había manera de hacerlo. En este
Hate was over. He took a chair in the same row momento, O'Brien miró su reloj de pulsera y, al ver
as Winston, a couple of places away. A small, que eran las once y ciento, seguramente decidió
sandy-haired woman who worked in the next quedarse en el Departamento de Registro hasta que
cubicle to Winston was between them. The girl pasaran los Dos Minutos de Odio. Tomó asiento en