And who can really calculate chances?
Men who lead forlorn hopes generally push through without being wounded;--and the fifth or sixth heir comes to a title." So much he said, palpably, though to himself, with his inner voice.

Then,--impalpably, with no even inner voice,--he asked himself what chance he might have of prevailing with the girl herself; and he almost ventured to tell himself that in that direction he need not despair.
In very truth he loved the girl and reverenced her, believing her to be better and higher and nobler than other human beings,--as a man does when he is in love; and so believing, he had those doubts as to his own success which such reverence produces..