Allowing the case against marriage to lapse, he began to consider the peculiarities of character which had led to her saying that.

Had she meant it?
Surely one ought to know the character of the person with whom one might spend all one's life; being a novelist, let him try to discover what sort of person she was.

When he was with her he could not analyse her qualities, because he seemed to know them instinctively, but when he was away from her it sometimes seemed to him that he did not know her at all.

She was young, but she was also old; she had little self-confidence, and yet she was a good judge of people.
She was happy; but what made her happy?
If they were alone and the excitement had worn off, and they had to deal with the ordinary facts of the day, what would happen?
Casting his eye upon his own character, two things appeared to him: that he was very unpunctual, and that he disliked answering notes.

As far as he knew Rachel was inclined to be punctual, but he could not remember that he had ever seen her with a pen in her hand.