Sentence:  Both these youths , who greatly admired Henrietta , were somewhat younger than she , as were also the neighboring Friedenwald boys , who were then studying medicine ; and bright though they all <WSD>were</WSD> , they could not possibly compete for her interest with Papa , whose mind - although he never tried to dazzle or patronize lesser lights with it - naturally eclipsed theirs and made them seem to her even younger than they were . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun)