There was much more to him than that.

He knew this better than Lucie did or her powerful brother, or even his adoring mother.

Great opportunities awaited him and a large space in the affairs of men if not of nations.

Such confidence did he feel in himself at this fevered moment that he never doubted that eventually he would gain all this, even with the handicap of a good-looking but unsophisticated wife.
But not quickly;...

step by step perhaps ...