Mrs Glegg, as you can see from this simile, is not the most empathic or kind of characters. Here she seeks an easy target for her general frustration by turning on her younger sister who has suffered the consequences of her husband’s obstinacy.

‘”Bessy, I’m sorry for you,” said Mrs Glegg, very much with the feeling of a cur that seizes the opportunity of diverting his bark towards the man who carries no stick.’

Source: George Eliot, The Mill on the Floss (London: Oxford University Press, 1963), p. 76

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