Sentence:  "On Friday morning, I had to be at my house affairs before seven; and they kept me in Apia till past ten, disputing, and consulting about brick and stone and native and hydraulic lime, and cement and sand, and all sorts of <WSD>otiose</WSD> details about the chimney – just what I fled from in my father's office twenty years ago;" 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  Having no reason for being (raison d'être); having no point, reason, or purpose.