What did it matter?
No one could see it.

He himself would not see it.

Why should he watch the hideous corruption of his soul?
He kept his youth--that was enough.

And, besides, might not his nature grow finer, after all?
There was no reason that the future should be so full of shame.

Some love might come across his life, and purify him, and shield him from those sins that seemed to be already stirring in spirit and in flesh--those curious unpictured sins whose very mystery lent them their subtlety and their charm.