Hon. Angelo Q. Ramson
December 25th 07, 05:27 PM
object that recalled a rose or a sea anemone.
'What is it?' said Winston, fascinated.
'That's coral, that is,' said the old man. 'It must have come from the
Indian Ocean. They used to kind of embed it in the glass. That wasn't made
less than a hundred years ago. More, by the look of it.'
'It's a beautiful thing,' said Winston.
'It is a beautiful thing,' said the other appreciatively. 'But there's
not many that'd say so nowadays.' He coughed. 'Now, if it so happened that
you wanted to buy it, that'd cost you four dollars. I can remember when a
thing like that would have fetched eight pounds, and eight pounds was --
well, I can't work it out, but it was a lot of money. But who cares about
genuine antiques nowadays even the few that's left?'
Winston immediately paid over the four dollars and slid the coveted
thing into his pocket. What appealed to him about it was not so much its
beauty as the air it seemed to possess of belonging to an age quite
different from the present one. The soft, rainwatery glass was not like any
glass that he had ever seen. The thing was doubly attractive because of its
apparent uselessness, though he could guess that it must once have been
intended as a paperweight. It was very heavy in his pocket, but fortunately
it did not make much of a bulge. It was a queer thing, even a compromising
thing, for a Party member to have in his possession. Anything old, and for
that matter anything beautiful, was always vaguely suspect. The old man had
grown noticeably more cheerful after receiving the four dollars. Winston
realized that he would have accepted three or even two.
'There's another room ups
'What is it?' said Winston, fascinated.
'That's coral, that is,' said the old man. 'It must have come from the
Indian Ocean. They used to kind of embed it in the glass. That wasn't made
less than a hundred years ago. More, by the look of it.'
'It's a beautiful thing,' said Winston.
'It is a beautiful thing,' said the other appreciatively. 'But there's
not many that'd say so nowadays.' He coughed. 'Now, if it so happened that
you wanted to buy it, that'd cost you four dollars. I can remember when a
thing like that would have fetched eight pounds, and eight pounds was --
well, I can't work it out, but it was a lot of money. But who cares about
genuine antiques nowadays even the few that's left?'
Winston immediately paid over the four dollars and slid the coveted
thing into his pocket. What appealed to him about it was not so much its
beauty as the air it seemed to possess of belonging to an age quite
different from the present one. The soft, rainwatery glass was not like any
glass that he had ever seen. The thing was doubly attractive because of its
apparent uselessness, though he could guess that it must once have been
intended as a paperweight. It was very heavy in his pocket, but fortunately
it did not make much of a bulge. It was a queer thing, even a compromising
thing, for a Party member to have in his possession. Anything old, and for
that matter anything beautiful, was always vaguely suspect. The old man had
grown noticeably more cheerful after receiving the four dollars. Winston
realized that he would have accepted three or even two.
'There's another room ups