Then she had always been on foot, to be everybody's messenger,--and so she was now.

When her uncle and aunt were at their meals she was always up and about,--attending them, attending the public guests, attending the whole house.

And it seemed as though she herself never sat down to eat or drink.
Indeed, it was rare enough to find her seated at all.

She would have a cup of coffee standing up at the little desk near the public window when she kept her books, or would take a morsel of meat as she helped to remove the dishes.

She would stand sometimes for a minute leaning on the back of her uncle's chair as he sat at his supper, and would say, when he bade her to take her chair and eat with them, that she preferred picking and stealing.