Yet had he set his heart upon seeing her safely married to him.

There was no other man of his acquaintance to whom he would willingly have entrusted her.

For Dot was very precious in his eyes.

But to his mind Fletcher Hill was worthy of her, and he believed that she would be as safe in his care as in his own.
That Fletcher Hill had long cherished the silent ambition of winning her was a fact well known to him.

Only once had they ever spoken on the subject, and then the words had been few and briefly uttered.