She was moving about the kitchen, doing this and that, waiting for no commands or requests.

Jerome and Elmira kept well back out of her way, although she had not half the fierce impetus that their mother sometimes had when hitching about in her chair.

Paulina Maria, in her limited field of action, had the quick and unswerving decision of a general, and people marshalled themselves at her nod, whether they would or no.

She was an example of the insistence of a type.

The prevailing traits of the village women were all intensified and fairly dominant in her.