The social isolation to which that affliction condemned her, the solitude of thought and feeling into which it forced her, tended from an early period to make her mind remarkably self-reliant, for so young a girl.

Her first impression of strangers seemed invariably to decide her opinion of them at once and for ever.
She liked or disliked people heartily; estimating them apparently from considerations entirely irrespective of age, or sex, or personal appearance.

Sometimes, the very person who was thought certain to attract her, proved to be absolutely repulsive to her--sometimes, people, who, in Mr.Blyth's opinion, were sure to be unwelcome visitors to Madonna, turned out, incomprehensibly, to be people whom she took a violent liking to directly.

She always betrayed her pleasure or uneasiness in the society of others with the most diverting candor--showing the extremest anxiety to conciliate and attract those whom she liked; running away and hiding herself like a child, from those whom she disliked.

There were some unhappy people, in this latter class, whom no persuasion could ever induce her to see a second time.
She could never give any satisfactory account of how she proceeded in forming her opinions of others.