about noon
`` Put this at your feet , '' he said , returning to Marietta . `` Oh , I can not allow the Signorino to wait on me like this , '' the old woman mustered voice to murmur . `` The Signorino likes it -- it affords him healthful exercise , '' Peter assured her . Dr. Carretaji came about noon , a fat middleaged man , with a fringe of black hair round an ivory-yellow scalp , a massive watch-chain -LRB- adorned by the inevitable pointed bit of coral -RRB- , and podgy , hairy hands . But he seemed kind and honest , and he seemed to know his business . `` She has a catarrh of the larynx , with , I am afraid , a beginning of bronchitis , '' was his verdict . `` Is there any danger ? ''