It then turned out that the plug was defective and the cell stank abominably for hours afterwards.
Parsons was removed.
More prisoners came and went, mysteriously.
One, a woman, was consigned to 'Room 101', and, Winston noticed, seemed to shrivel and turn a different colour when she heard the words.
A time came when, if it had been morning when he was brought here, it would be afternoon; or if it had been afternoon, then it would be midnight.
There were six prisoners in the cell, men and women.
All sat very still.
Opposite Winston there sat a man with a chinless, toothy face exactly like that of some large, harmless rodent.
His fat, mottled cheeks were so pouched at the bottom that it was difficult not to believe that he had little stores of food tucked away there.
His pale-grey eyes flitted timorously from face to face and turned quickly away again when he caught anyone's eye.
The door opened, and another prisoner was brought in whose appearance sent a momentary chill through Winston.
He was a commonplace, mean-looking man who might have been an engineer or technician of some kind.
But what was startling was the emaciation of his face.
It was like a skull.
Because of its thinness the mouth and eyes looked disproportionately large, and the eyes seemed filled with a murderous, unappeasable hatred of somebody or something.
The man sat down on the bench at a little distance from Winston.
Winston did not look at him again, but the tormented, skull-like face was as vivid in his mind as though it had been straight in front of his eyes.
Suddenly he realized what was the matter.
The man was dying of starvation.
The same thought seemed to occur almost simultaneously to everyone in the cell.
There was a very faint stirring all the way round the bench.
The eyes of the chinless man kept flitting towards the skull-faced man, then turning guiltily away, then being dragged back by an irresistible attraction.
Presently he began to fidget on his seat.
At last he stood up, waddled clumsily across the cell, dug down into the pocket of his overalls, and, with an abashed air, held out a grimy piece of bread to the skull-faced man.
There was a furious, deafening roar from the telescreen.
The chinless man jumped in his tracks.
The skull-faced man had quickly thrust his hands behind his back, as though demonstrating to all the world that he refused the gift.
'Bumstead!' roared the voice. '2713 Bumstead J.!
Let fall that piece of bread!'
The chinless man dropped the piece of bread on the floor.
'Remain standing where you are,' said the voice.
'Face the door.
Make no movement.'
The chinless man obeyed.
His large pouchy cheeks were quivering uncontrollably.
The door clanged open.
As the young officer entered and stepped aside, there emerged from behind him a short stumpy guard with enormous arms and shoulders.
He took his stand opposite the chinless man, and then, at a signal from the officer, let free a frightful blow, with all the weight of his body behind it, full in the chinless man's mouth.
The force of it seemed almost to knock him clear of the floor.
His body was flung across the cell and fetched up against the base of the lavatory seat.
For a moment he lay as though stunned, with dark blood oozing from his mouth and nose.
A very faint whimpering or squeaking, which seemed unconscious, came out of him.
Then he rolled over and raised himself unsteadily on hands and knees.
Amid a stream of blood and saliva, the two halves of a dental plate fell out of his mouth.
The prisoners sat very still, their hands crossed on their knees.
The chinless man climbed back into his place.
Down one side of his face the flesh was darkening.
His mouth had swollen into a shapeless cherry-coloured mass with a black hole in the middle of it.
From time to time a little blood dripped on to the breast of his overalls.
His grey eyes still flitted from face to face, more guiltily than ever, as though he were trying to discover how much the others despised him for his humiliation.