midday
The article ` Mummia , ' for instance , was already complete , though the remainder of the work had not progressed beyond the letter A . It was exceedingly copious and entertaining , written with quaintness and colour , exact , erudite , a literary article ; but it would hardly have afforded guidance to a practising physician of to-day . The feminine good sense of his wife had led her to point this out with uncompromising sincerity ; for the Dictionary was duly read aloud to her , betwixt sleep and waning , as it proceeded towards an infinitely distant completion ; and the Doctor was a little sore on the subject of mummies , and sometimes resented an allusion with asperity . After the midday meal and a proper period of digestion , he walked , sometimes alone , sometimes accompanied by Jean-Marie ; for madame would have preferred any hardship rather than walk . She was , as I have said , a very busy person , continually occupied about material comforts , and ready to drop asleep over a novel the instant she was disengaged . This was the less objectionable , as she never snored or grew distempered in complexion when she slept . On the contrary , she looked the very picture of luxurious and appetising ease , and woke without a start to the perfect possession of her faculties .