examination

 "All in one word, too, one little, flat, deadly word that covers a lifetime.

'Living in sin'; not just doing wrong  ...  knowing it is wrong, stopping doing it, forgetting.  That is not what they mean  ...

Living in sin, with sin, by sin, for sin, every hour, every day, year in, year out.  Waking up with sin in the morning, seeing the curtains drawn on sin, bathing it, dressing it, clipping diamonds to it, feeding it, showing it round, giving it a good time, putting it to sleep at night with a tablet of Dial if it's fretful."

- Julia in Brideshead Revisited