Did he want to marry Mary?
Did he?
Dannie reached empty arms to empty space, and groaned aloud.
Would she marry him?
Well, now, would she?
After years of neglect and sorrow, Dannie knew that Mary had learned to prefer him to Jimmy.

But almost any man would have been preferable to a woman, to Jimmy.

Jimmy was distinctly a man's man.

A jolly good fellow, but he would not deny himself anything, no matter what it cost his wife, and he had been very hard to live with.

Dannie admitted that.