He was now felt free to find a respectable wife, and his aunt had already prepared the way with the daughter of her doctor. He arrived home on 25 May, and on 31 May he and his aunt called on the 18-year-old Hester Bredon and her newly widowed mother. A rapid courtship followed. On their third meeting, on 5 June, he proposed and was accepted. They married in Dublin on 22 August and in September left for Peking. With Hester he had three legal children, Evelyn, Robert and Mabel, but did not see much of them. They both made a genuine effort to make the marriage work and to find common interests, but Peking life had its difficulties. Hester returned to Britain in 1876 with their first two children. A brief reunion started on his second leave in 1878, during which he had a break down. Hester probably found out about the illegitimate children, whose education was causing expense, during this leave. She accompanied him back to Peking, where the third child, Mabel, was born, but from 1882 she and the children lived permanently in London. The relationship was maintained by letter. Hart wrote regularly to his wife and legal children. The two oldest visited him in Peking briefly in the 1890s, not very satisfactorily. He was disappointed in the adult lives of his three legitimate children, but acknowledged in a letter to Campbell that he had been a neglectful father, not being present to set an example, but China was his priority.