"You were human." And for one or two steps, he actually backs away, as though it will do him any good. He does not like this side of Daniel, this cajoling attempt to convince him of something that flies in the face of the commandments. "It is wrong for me to be this way," he argues. "It is a sickness."

It is not difficult to recall the old words, and he allows the twelfth commandment to come rolling past his lips with all the authority a man quivering with indignation and anxiety can muster. "Know thy place: mortal to Earth, angel to Heaven. The place of mortals is the Earth, the place of angels is the Heavens - neither side shall seek to change the right and natural order," he says.

Nor covet a higher station, he does not say.