As a rule, he is charming to me, and we sit in the studio and talk of a thousand things. Now and then, however, he is horribly thoughtless, and seems to take a real delight in giving me pain. Then I feel, Harry, that I have given away my whole soul to some one who treats it as if it were a flower to put in his coat, a bit of decoration to charm his vanity, an ornament for a summer’s day.
– Oscar Wilde
The Picture of Dorian Gray, Chapter 1. Artist Basil is describing his friend and sitter Dorian to Lord Henry. Neither Henry nor the readers have met Dorian yet. But this passage refers to signs of a vanity and thoughlessness in Dorian, foreshadowing his later cruelty and embrace of evil.