Hirsch's clinging to the anchor symbolized the choice of society over the isolation of the Placid Gulf. The doctor is also choosing society, politically and symbolically, but he is cynical enough to see society for what it is, and to know that anyone who clings to that "anchor" is doomed. Along those lines, his caveat "most probably" suggests that his dream-ideal of love for Mrs Gould is not quite a social dream-ideal.