This chapter features several tender, intimate moments. Coming out of the bathroom at work, Winston sees the dark-haired girl once again. As she approaches him, he notices that her arm has been injured. The girl stumbles, and when Winston helps her up, she slides him a note. Winston had long suspected the girl to be a Party member or a spy and had gotten used to regarding her with suspicion and wariness. As he helps her up, however, he is overcome with tenderness. He goes so far as to think that the woman may be part of the rebel group called the Brotherhood. He returns to his desk and waits awhile before looking at her note. “I love you,” declares the note.

A few days have passed. Winston has destroyed the note, but he can barely contain himself. He had assumed she was a mindless follower of the Party, but she turned out to be something else completely. Out of nowhere, Winston has run into a reason to live. Several painful days later, he manages to sit next to her at a lunch table. They make plans to meet after work in a public square. They stand shoulder-to-shoulder, and she gives him directions for their next meeting. For a small yet beautiful and intense moment, they hold hands.