I started thinking about this after reading Rae and Rachel's posts about CW's actual chances in 1806. In ch.4, we are told that "he was, at that time, a remarkably fine young man, with a great deal of intelligence, spirit and brilliancy".

[CW] was confident that he should soon be rich; full of life and ardour, he knew that he should soon have a ship, and soon be on a station that would lead to every thing he wanted. He had always been lucky; he knew he should be so still. Such confidence, powerful in its own warmth, and bewitching in the wit which often expressed it, must have been enough for Anne; but Lady Russell saw it very differently. His sanguine temper, and fearlessness of mind, operated very differently on her.