Raghunathan says may be with her a long time, which is that she checks.

She checks whether people are all right.

She is nine and she is the child in the room who notices that another child has gone quiet.

Twice in the last year a teacher has told me, admiringly, that Nell is unusually attuned to other people’s feelings, and I have said thank you, because there is no version of the reply that belongs in a parent-teacher conference.

She learned that.