Wentworth noted the man's exhilaration and was simultaneously surprised by and glad of it. It was clear to him that this Donald Witaker truly cared for his daughter, likely more than he did, and he was pleased to know Persephone's wild architecture ideas and free-spirited nature would soon no longer be his responsibility, and the changing of her name to Witaker (as would presumably be the case) would greatly decrease the poor reflections of her unladylike goals upon the Blythe name. "A pleasure," he said, shortly but not sharp, and allowed Donald to leave the parlor. Persephone, by chance, had just followed Harriet down the stairs after letting her sister tie a periwinkle ribbon in her hair and was right beside the parlor door when her father opened it to let himself and Donald out.

"Darling," she said with a smile, slightly less wide than before her fiance had spoken to her father, and kissed his cheek. "Father, what did you say?" At the news of a positive verdict, she turned back to Donald and smiled, taking his hands in hers. "Of course you did," she teased Wentworth, "he's all you could have hoped for and more!" She glanced to the side and blushed, admitting, "And I feel the same." She'd taken some time upstairs with Harriet to think over her feelings for Donald and had decided she would learn to love him, even though she did not- yet.