noon
All we had to live on was fruit , and our hopes for the future . The prince began to reproach me with want of enterprise and laziness -- with `` gaping about , '' as he expressed it . Altogether , he was beginning to bore me ; but what most tried my patience were his fabulous accounts of his appetite . According to these accounts , after a hearty breakfast at noon of roast lamb , and three bottles of wine , he could easily , at his two o'clock dinner , dispose of three plates of soup , a pot of pilave , a dish of shasleek , and various other Caucasian dishes , washed down abundantly with wine . For whole days he would talk of nothing but his gastronomic tastes and knowledge : and while thus talking , he would smack his lips , his eyes would glow , he would show his teeth , and grind them together ; would suck in and swallow the saliva that came dripping from his eloquent lips . Watching him at these moments , I conceived for him a deep feeling of disgust , which I found difficult to conceal . Near Jalta I obtained a job at clearing away the dead branches in an orchard .