In his boyish days, before he had weakened his texture by self-indulgence and shattered his nerves by debauchery, he had been famous for his skill and endurance in the water, and it now occurred to him that he might swim ashore and save Katy Charlton at the same time.

It is easy enough for us to see the interested motives he had in proposing to save little Katy.

He would wipe out the censure sure to fall on him for overloading the boat, he would put Katy and her friends under lasting obligations to him, he would win his game.
It is always easy to see the selfish motive.

But let us do him justice, and say that these were not the only considerations.

Just as the motives of no man are good without some admixture of evil, so are the motives of no man entirely bad.