I never thought to look at it that way but I think you might be on to something. It does seem as though the reason CW became successful so quickly is because he wanted to throw himself into his work because of his disappointment over Anne. JA tells us earlier "...He had nothing to do and she hardly anyone to love..." Now he says "...I wanted to be doing something." So his "something to do" was advancing his career instead of staying ashore being with Anne. In a round about way we could say that Anne helped him by retracting her acceptance. Which is what she had convinced herself she was doing in the first place.