Mathilde had too much taste to work into the conversation a prepared epigram but at the same time she was too vain not to be extremely pleased with herself.
He was incensed at the mistaken leniency of the presiding justice in not stopping her speech; it was a defence in itself, a brief prepared beforehand—and what was there left for him?
Feeling that she must get through the matter somehow, Jo produced her manuscript and, blushing redder and redder with each sentence, blundered out fragments of the little speech carefully prepared for the occasion.
Talk from brief notes-you can write them on cards, perhaps-so that it sounds a bit more spontaneous than reading a prepared script and your eyes are free to make contact with the audience.