No, he was dashed if he could think of one blessed thing in his favour, while she...

Ah!...

He stopped dead, folded his arms, and leaned hard against the chest of drawers.
And in spite of her position, her father's wealth, the fact that she was an only child and far and away the most popular girl in the neighbourhood; in spite of her beauty and her cleverness--cleverness!--it was a great deal more than that, there was really nothing she couldn't do; he fully believed, had it been necessary, she would have been a genius at anything--in spite of the fact that her parents adored her, and she them, and they'd as soon let her go all that way as...

In spite of every single thing you could think of, so terrific was his love that he couldn't help hoping.

Well, was it hope?
Or was this queer, timid longing to have the chance of looking after her, of making it his job to see that she had everything she wanted, and that nothing came near her that wasn't perfect--just love?
How he loved her! He squeezed hard against the chest of drawers and murmured to it, "I love her, I love her!" And just for the moment he was with her on the way to Umtali.