He remembered every point, and did not think it necessary to go over in his memory what he would say.

He knew that when the time came, and when he saw his enemy facing him, and studiously endeavoring to assume an expression of indifference, his speech would flow of itself better than he could prepare it now.

He felt that the import of his speech was of such magnitude that every word of it would have weight.

Meantime, as he listened to the usual report, he had the most innocent and inoffensive air.

No one, looking at his white hands, with their swollen veins and long fingers, so softly stroking the edges of the white paper that lay before him, and at the air of weariness with which his head drooped on one side, would have suspected that in a few minutes a torrent of words would flow from his lips that would arouse a fearful storm, set the members shouting and attacking one another, and force the president to call for order.