And therefore she believed in encouraging logical thought and a healthy enquiring mind among the nascent young women in her care, a course of action which is, as far as wisdom is concerned, on a par with going alligator‑hunting in a cardboard boat during the sinking season.
For example, when she lectured to the school, pointed chin trembling, on the perils to be found outside in the town, three hundred healthy enquiring minds decided that 1) they should be sampled at the earliest opportunity, and logical thought wondered 2) exactly how Miss Butt knew about them. And the high, spike‑topped walls around the college grounds looked simple enough to anyone with a fresh mind full of trigonometry and a body honed by healthy fencing, calisthenics and cold baths. Miss Butts could make peril seem really interesting.
Anyway, that was the incident of the midnight visitor. After a while, Susan considered that she must have imagined it. That was the only logical explanation. And Susan was good at those.
Everyone, they say, is looking for something.
Imp was looking for somewhere to go.
The farm cart that had brought him the last stretch of the way was rumbling off across the fields.
He looked at the signpost. One arm pointed to Quirm, the other to Ankh‑Morpork. He knew just enough to know that Ankh‑Morpork was a big city, but built on loam and therefore of no interest to the druids in his family. He had three Ankh‑Morpork dollars and some change. It probably wasn't very much in Ankh‑Morpork.
He didn't know anything about Quirm, except that it was on the coast. The road to Quirm didn't look very worn, while the one to Ankh‑Morpork was heavily rutted.
It'd be sensible to go to Quirm to get the feel of city life. It'd be sensible to learn a bit about how city people thought before heading for Ankh‑Morpork, which they said was the largest city in the world. It'd be sensible to get some kind of job in Quirm and raise a bit of extra cash. It'd be sensible to learn to walk before he started to run.