Sentence:  The Celebrity, by arts unknown, induced Mrs. Judge Short and two other ladies to call at Mohair on an afternoon when Mr. Cooke was trying a trotter on the track....Their <WSD>example</WSD> was followed by others at a time when the master of Mohair was superintending in person the docking of some two-year-olds, and equally invisible. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  Something that serves as a pattern of behaviour to be imitated (a good example) or not to be imitated (a bad example).