‘Yes. But they have a few clear needs, and much of what they do is about fulfilling them. And they trust certain adults. When Tom and Emily met you, they were unsure – they noticed something adults didn’t – me included. Though of course, when I met you I wasn’t quite at my best. Anyway, once I explained all about you to the children, they were fine – as you saw, in fact, they were excited because they knew if I said you were all right, then they didn’t have to worry.’

And of course, Margaret trusted me because I had restored her health. Her life had been put in my hands, literally, and I had improved it, immeasurably.

‘It can get children into trouble, though,’ Margaret went on. ‘I expect you know all about the way they’re abused by people who win their trust.’

‘Yes, we do,’ I replied. It was time to steer her away from this topic. ‘What we are confused about is why Cecilia wanted to die.’

‘She told me you wouldn’t help her.’

‘We considered her request, but it’s against our programming. And then she took it into her own hands. While she was with you, her nanobots at first tried to keep her alive, but we instructed them to stop, as we knew she wanted to die. When she first told us, she gave us no satisfactory explanation.’

‘She’d had enough. Of life.’

‘Surely all organisms are primarily motivated to survive? We see it all the time, in all life forms. The response to life-threatening situations in all animals is similar.’

‘Yes,’ said Margaret. ‘They will run away, or fight if it’s possible. But when they get old, some animals stop eating, don’t they? As if they know it’s time to go.’

‘There is some evidence for this.’

‘And Winifred, though we are animals, remember each species is different. We are humans, and we’re clearly different even from our closest animal relatives. I’m not saying superior.’

‘Why not?’

‘You told me off once for describing you as a superior sort of being. You didn’t understand why I would be competitive. I thought about it a lot. And it seemed to me unnecessary to see things that way. Perhaps, of course, because up to now humans have been assured of their own superiority, in the terms we choose, and now look. Here you are, far superior in those precise terms. Yet perhaps not if we change the measure. Or am I changing the rules to save my pride? I honestly don’t know.’

Her brain was calm now. The emotional surges had subsided, and she had then used a particular kind of mental activity, similar to what we have observed when she reads factual narratives. At the end, though, these thought processes changed again, and her mind looked as it does when she reads poetry.