Sentence:  Edward Churchill still attended to his work in a hopeless <WSD>mechanical</WSD> manner like a sleep-walker who walks safely on a well-known round. But his Roman collar galled him, his cossack stifled him, his biretta was as uncomfortable as a merry-andrew's cap and bells. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  Acting as if one were a machine: lifeless or mindless.