Her affections consisted so far of a distinct dislike of and contempt for her father.

She had accorded to Fay a solemn compassion when first the latter returned to Priesthope.
Indeed, the estrangement between the sisters, brought about by the suggested course of reading, had been the unfortunate result of a cogitating pity on Bessie's part for the lamentable want of regulation of Fay's mind.
Bessie liked Magdalen, though she disapproved of her manner of life as weak and illogical.

You could not love Bessie any more than you could love an ironclad.

She bore the same resemblance to a woman that an iron building does to a house.

She was not in reality harder than tin or granite or asphalt, or her father; but it would not be an over-statement to suggest that she lacked softness.
She advanced with precision to the bench on which her sisters were sitting.
"I am now going to cycle to the Carters'," she said to Magdalen.