She bids her worshipper travel down each red and yellow ray, bathe in its hues, and return to her "jewelled," but not smirched; and each time he returns, not jewelled, but smirched; always to appear monstrous in her sight; always to be dismissed with the same sad smile: so pitying that it promises love, so fixed that it bars its possibility.
"A Handbook to the Works of Browning (6th ed.)"
Mrs. Sutherland Orr
I tried to understand the plain fact that I was walking the wet streets in the company of a woman who, judged by ordinary standards, bore a smirched reputation, and that I had permitted that woman to make, though without words, a declaration of her love for me.
"The Debit Account"
Oliver Onions
The brilliant city had not smirched his soul, but it had helped to form his taste.
"The Way of Ambition"
Robert Hichens