Laura knows, as he speaks, that this is an area in which she has no useful experience. Even if she'd been a child, with time to stare wide-eyed at other people, she'd never met other children; she would not have known whether her experiences were universal. (As it is, she's found that they are not, as a rule, commonly shared.) So she's willing to consider the idea, even without all his justifications bolstering the suggestion.

"What would you tell them?" she asks, when he's explained himself and seems to have come to something like a breath. There are things she would dislike the orphans to know about--most things, she realizes, that are true about her--and while Matthias would never tell them unpleasant stories about her, there are few stories that aren't.

But if it would work...perhaps they could know something of her. She looks down at her free hand, the one that isn't clutching at Matthias', at her knuckles. A bruise is ground pale on them, but they are otherwise unmarked. Perhaps they do not have to be quite as frightening, if she knows what Matthias wants to say about her. He could tell them she is not frightening, and she could attempt to be...not frightening. Friendly? Willing to kill for them, at least, which is more important.