Paidia and Gelio had got their heads together again, nattering and comparing notes.
Gelio craned his neck to look all around him and then commented: “This building could be hundreds of years old. Some of the stones are enormous. I wonder how they lifted them into place?”
“It's so clean,” added Paidia. “How would you get the
cobwebs out of the corners right up there?” she giggled.
“They must have a feather duster on a very long pole,”
suggested Gelio.
“I was thinking how gloomy a place it is, but those Integers seemed really happy. Perhaps I was wrong to be so worried.” Paidia shook her head as if she couldn't reconcile the different impressions.
Muko was walking along beside them, lost in his own thoughts. 'What sort of a place is this and why am I here?' he wondered. He didn't notice that Amartia was right alongside him because her silence was in stark contrast to the behaviour of some of the other pupils in the class, who were making a rare old racket with their crying and wailing. Muko found it irritating