Example of--or to. Which is why I at times regard myself in that
capacity with a slightly ribald lightness."

The detachment of his question with regard to the newborn infant
of the airily irresponsible Feather was in entire harmony with his
attitude towards the singular incident of Life as illustrated by
the World, the Flesh and the Devil by none of which he was--as far
as could be observed--either impressed, disturbed or prejudiced.
His own experience had been richly varied and practically unlimited
in its opportunities for pleasure, sinful or unsinful indulgence,
mitigated or unmitigated wickedness, the gathering of strange
knowledge, and the possible ignoring of all dull boundaries. This
being the case a superhuman charity alone could have forborne to
believe that his opportunities had been neglected in the heyday
of his youth. Wealth and lady of limitations in themselves would
have been quite enough to cause the Nonconformist Victorian mind
to regard a young--or middle-aged--male as likely to represent a
fearsome moral example, but these three temptations combined with
good looks and a certain mental brilliance were so inevitably the
concomitants of elegant iniquity that the results might be taken
for granted.

That the various worlds in which he lived in various lands accepted
him joyfully as an interesting and desirable of more or less
abominably sinful personage, the Head of the House of Coombe--even
many years before he became its head--regarded with the detachment
which he had, even much earlier, begun to learn. Why should it be
in the least matter what people thought of one? Why should it in
the least matter what one thought of oneself--and therefore--why
should one think at all? He had begun at the outset a brilliantly