Sentence:  Why should Life be a cruel taskmaster, gaunt and grim, priggish and precise, and not the jolly, generous, <WSD>loose-handed</WSD> friend who winks at faults, overlooks lapses, and lets things run free in a happy-go-lucky kind of way, the margin not counting? 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  Lenient, permissive.