Alfred bit his tongue and didn't respond right away. The short answer was yes, it was worth it to him. He couldn't think of anything he wouldn't give up, at least temporarily, if it meant he got to be with Zelda. Honestly, he was starting to warm up to the idea (even if she was right about the airheaded debutantes and bored socialites), but even if he hadn't been, he would have done it anyway. He loved Zelda, and she loved him, and she wasn't the one asking him to give up going out to sea half the year. Once they were actually together, he had faith that the two of them could overcome any obstacle — and he was willing to do whatever it took to get them together, so that they had the chance to try. Because if you loved someone, it was always worth trying, no matter how hard it was at first.
But he didn't really expect Jo to understand that. She talked about this man who wanted to marry her as though she loved him, but when Jo said love she didn't really mean the same thing as Alfred did. She didn't mean doing things that were difficult, or compromising. She didn't even mean she was willing to talk about compromising, based on what she'd said in their last conversation. And a part of him understood that, because he'd been twenty-two before. He'd thought that real love didn't ever require you to change, or to make sacrifices — he'd even gotten engaged under those assumptions. It wasn't that Jo was being unreasonable, or stupid. She was just too young to understand that was what love was; it was giving things up and not even feeling as though it was a compromise or a sacrifice, because it was worth it in the end.
He didn't end up answering her question at all, because when he bit his tongue and watched her a minute he finally realized what she was doing. She was looking for the floo powder. That feeling he'd gotten, as though she were a bird about to flit away, wasn't just a weird feeling; she was actually trying to flee.
"Jo, stop," he said, reaching out to grab the jar of floo powder from the edge of the mantle and holding it in his lap (she was clearly scattered; it was in the same spot it always was). "What are you doing?" he demanded, though this was not meant to encompass her search for the floo powder — that part of what she'd been doing was rather obvious — but rather all of this. The sudden arrival, the assault of questions, the frantic look in her eye.
MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER
But he didn't really expect Jo to understand that. She talked about this man who wanted to marry her as though she loved him, but when Jo said love she didn't really mean the same thing as Alfred did. She didn't mean doing things that were difficult, or compromising. She didn't even mean she was willing to talk about compromising, based on what she'd said in their last conversation. And a part of him understood that, because he'd been twenty-two before. He'd thought that real love didn't ever require you to change, or to make sacrifices — he'd even gotten engaged under those assumptions. It wasn't that Jo was being unreasonable, or stupid. She was just too young to understand that was what love was; it was giving things up and not even feeling as though it was a compromise or a sacrifice, because it was worth it in the end.
He didn't end up answering her question at all, because when he bit his tongue and watched her a minute he finally realized what she was doing. She was looking for the floo powder. That feeling he'd gotten, as though she were a bird about to flit away, wasn't just a weird feeling; she was actually trying to flee.
"Jo, stop," he said, reaching out to grab the jar of floo powder from the edge of the mantle and holding it in his lap (she was clearly scattered; it was in the same spot it always was). "What are you doing?" he demanded, though this was not meant to encompass her search for the floo powder — that part of what she'd been doing was rather obvious — but rather all of this. The sudden arrival, the assault of questions, the frantic look in her eye.
MJ made the most Alfredy of sets and then two years later she made it EVEN BETTER