Ari might have pointed out that if Darrow had been smarter about this, he should have built up a case like that before waltzing in and attempting to court her the first time - rather than just going ahead and courting her even after Brannon had denied his permission. The bad first impressions would take some undoing for all of them, that was clear: but it sounded like Darrow could see that well.
But would their father still refuse a suitor’s proposal if it were a sound one in all regards but for a personal dislike of his character? That was a good question. “I can’t speak for him,” Ari admitted first, wary of guessing at his father’s mind at this point in time, and of making or breaking Darrow’s hopes without being certain one way or the other, “but I think having a strong case for it would help immensely. If you at least prove that you can properly support her... he’d like you better for that, anyway. And he has always hoped that Zelda would marry one day.”
Marry respectably, that was, but since Zelda was unlikely to have any other suitors appear out of the blue at this stage, their father probably couldn’t be as picky as he might have liked. (Poor Xena was only now on the brink of marriage after a run of bad luck in that realm, so being picky had hardly served her that much better.) And if Darrow could both make an effort to tone down, if not negate, the aura of - unruliness - about him and his lifestyle, and avoid making any more waves in the wrong direction when it came to his attachment to Zelda, Ari supposed he still counted as respectable, just about.
“Have you got it all figured out?” he asked, curiously. It was one thing to say it all, but rather different to actually follow through.
But would their father still refuse a suitor’s proposal if it were a sound one in all regards but for a personal dislike of his character? That was a good question. “I can’t speak for him,” Ari admitted first, wary of guessing at his father’s mind at this point in time, and of making or breaking Darrow’s hopes without being certain one way or the other, “but I think having a strong case for it would help immensely. If you at least prove that you can properly support her... he’d like you better for that, anyway. And he has always hoped that Zelda would marry one day.”
Marry respectably, that was, but since Zelda was unlikely to have any other suitors appear out of the blue at this stage, their father probably couldn’t be as picky as he might have liked. (Poor Xena was only now on the brink of marriage after a run of bad luck in that realm, so being picky had hardly served her that much better.) And if Darrow could both make an effort to tone down, if not negate, the aura of - unruliness - about him and his lifestyle, and avoid making any more waves in the wrong direction when it came to his attachment to Zelda, Ari supposed he still counted as respectable, just about.
“Have you got it all figured out?” he asked, curiously. It was one thing to say it all, but rather different to actually follow through.
