Lebyadkin had a sister, the woman who was sitting here just now.

The brother and sister hadn't a corner* of their own, but were always quartering themselves on different people.

He used to hang about the arcades in the Gostiny Dvor, always wearing his old uniform, and would stop the more respectable-looking passers-by, and everything he got from them he'd spend in drink.

His sister lived like the birds of heaven.

She'd help people in their 'corners,' and do jobs for them on occasion.