midday
`` Do n't you get up , '' said the latter . `` We 're all going to early service , and I just want to make Robby some bread and milk beforehand . He would rather communicate fasting , but he has to have something , for he does n't get home till dinner-time . '' When midday came , Robby was very fractious . The mutton-bone -- no cooking was done -- was harder than ever to carve with decency ; and poor Mrs. Shepherd , for sheer fidgetiness , could hardly swallow a bite . But at nine o'clock that evening , when the labours of the day were behind him , he was persuaded to lie down on the sofa and drink a glass of port . At his head sat Mrs. Shepherd , holding the wine and some biscuits ; at his feet Isabella , stroking his soles .