noon
I calculated that this lady , put into a scale of magnitude , suitable for the reception of a commodity of bulk , would infallibly turn from fourteen to sixteen stone . She was , indeed , extremely well fed : very much butcher 's meat -- to say nothing of bread , vegetables , and liquids -- must she have consumed to attain that breadth and height , that wealth of muscle , that affluence of flesh . She lay half-reclined on a couch : why , it would be difficult to say ; broad daylight blazed round her ; she appeared in hearty health , strong enough to do the work of two plain cooks ; she could not plead a weak spine ; she ought to have been standing , or at least sitting bolt upright . She , had no business to lounge away the noon on a sofa . She ought likewise to have worn decent garments ; a gown covering her properly , which was not the case : out of abundance of material -- seven-and-twenty yards , I should say , of drapery -- she managed to make inefficient raiment . Then , for the wretched untidiness surrounding her , there could be no excuse . Pots and pans -- perhaps I ought to say vases and goblets -- were rolled here and there on the foreground ; a perfect rubbish of flowers was mixed amongst them , and an absurd and disorderly mass of curtain upholstery smothered the couch and cumbered the floor .