She had not been entirely serious, but she had not been entirely joking, either. When he did not outright reject the concept, the proposal slid further into the category of serious. It wasn't an elopement. It wasn't a scandal, either. And wasn't it better to let her putter about courting him than to face the scandal of ending a courtship?

The look on her face turned conspiratorial; the corners of her mouth twitched up into a smile.

"At a party," Zelda said. "The papers would pick it up if it was a - big scene." And that way, there were no reporters to ask her father in advance.

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