[Conrad glances at him and utters an uncomfortable sort of sound.]

I mean, it could just be hubris, right? Vampires are supposed to be better than mortals. Or maybe most of the students are assumed to wind up as failures, but they're surprising us.

[Really, he wonders why the whole Foundling thing isn't used to recruit more thralls. Surprising people with the chance to be a vampire would bring in more students who are just plain ill-suited to making it to vampiredom.]