It's not a matter of scaring her away, or trying to knock her down a peg; it's the way he was taught, with care and patience, to make sure that at the end of it he would know how to do it right with all the entailed responsibilities of this work, and it's the way he'll teach anyone who comes to him. If it had been enough to make her pout, he'd have dismissed her as someone wasting his time for a lark.

That she's not is a good thing. A girl, he supposes, has more to prove; she might work harder, be better at the end, and he wouldn't mind being proud of that.

"Here," he says, leading her to where she can sit with him and he'll show her what he wants her to do. "I'm working a set of lockpicks tomorrow, you'll want to see how I do that."