If it's hopeless, it's not, I'm sure, because of anything in you.

It's because of fate, or circumstance, or some unworthiness in the person you care for.

Now with me one of the hardest things to bear is the fact that I've nothing to blame but myself.

I'm not adequate, that's the trouble; no charm, you see,' Mr.Kane again almost mused, 'no charm.

Charm is the great thing, and it means more than it seems to mean, all evolution, the survival of the fittest--natural selection--is in it, when you come to think of it.
If I'd had charm, personality, or, well, greatness of some sort, I'd have probably won Althea long ago.