Sentence:  It was safe to assume that Papa , sighing heavily , had said many times to his remaining daughter , `` Thank God your poor mother was spared this '' , and indeed it might be true that it had <WSD>been</WSD> easier for Henrietta to leave , with her hand in Charles ' hand , just because her `` poor mother '' was gone already and would never know . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun)