It seemed to Odo as he gazed on the long line of faces as though their owners had entered one by one into a narrowing defile, where the sun rose later and set earlier on each successive traveller; and in every countenance, from that of the first Duke to that of his own peruked and cuirassed grandfather, he discerned the same symptom of decadency: that duality of will which, in a delicately-tempered race, is the fatal fruit of an undisturbed pre-eminence.
"The Valley of Decision"
Edith Wharton
And then came a decadency, like a wagon rolling out of ear-shot.
"The Voodoo Gold Trail"
Walter Walden