Condescending? Alfred made a face. He had thought he'd braced for whatever she was going to say, but he hadn't been prepared for this. Alfred was not exactly high and mighty in the view of the rest of society. He wasn't sure if he could have successfully come across as condescending to anyone (other than Zelda, apparently) if he'd tried. No one took him seriously enough for that.

"From me?" he asked, in disbelief. It didn't really matter whether it had been him or Jo, though, at the end of the day. What mattered was how Zelda felt about it. "This is — this is the problem with letters," he said, shaking his head again. "The only thing I ever tried to do was make a joke."