Now and again a faint cheer would break the even flow, and he would look up for a moment with startled eyes, only to go off again with quickened speed.

He found himself talking neat paradoxes which he did not understand, and speaking glibly of names which to him were no more than echoes.

Eventually he came to an end at least twenty minutes before a normal political speech should close, and sat down, hot and perplexed, with a horrible sense of having made a fool of himself.
The chairman, no less perplexed, made the usual remarks and then called for questions, for the time had to be filled in somehow.

The words left George aghast.

The wretched man looked forward to raw public shame.
His ignorance would be exposed, his presumption laid bare, his pride thrown in the dust.