Who is speaking to Horace Danby? | Class 10 English - Footprints Without Feet Chapter A Question of Trust, A Question of Trust NCERT Solutions

“Horace Danby was good and respectable — but not completely honest”. Why do you think this description is apt for Horace? Why can’t he be categorised as a typical thief?

Did you begin to suspect, before the end of the story, that the lady was not the person Horace Danby took her to be? If so, at what point did you realise this, and how?

Who is the real culprit in the story?

What does Horace Danby like to collect?

Why does he steal every year?

Horace Danby was a meticulous planner but still he faltered. Where did he go wrong and why?

What are the subtle ways in which the lady manages to deceive Horace Danby into thinking she is the lady of the house? Why doesn’t Horace suspect that something is wrong?

Do you think this is a real-life episode, or mere fiction? Or is it a mixture of both?

“Griffin was rather a lawless person.” Comment.

How does Ausable manage to make Max believe that there is a balcony attached to his room? Look back at his detailed description of it. What makes it a convincing story?

What was the cause of Matilda’s ruin? How could she have avoided it?

“Ausable did not fit any description of a secret agent Fowler had ever read.” What do secret agents in books and films look like, in your opinion? Discuss in groups or in class some stories or movies featuring spies, detectives and secret agents, and compare their appearance with that of Ausable in this story. (You may mention characters from fiction in languages other than English. In English fiction you may have come across Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, or Miss Marple. Have you watched any movies featuring James Bond?)

What kind of a person do you think the narrator, a veterinary surgeon, is? Would you say he is tactful as well as full of commonsense?

Bholi’s story must have moved you. Do you think girl children are not treated at par with boys? You are aware that the government has introduced a scheme to save the girl child as the sex ratio is declining. The scheme is called Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, Save the Girl Child. Read about the scheme and design a poster in groups of four and display on the school notice board.

The course of the Loisels’ life changed due to the necklace. Comment.

How does he treat the dog?

Why was he wandering the streets?

How is Ausable different from other secret agents?

Is the narrator as rich as Tricki’s mistress?

What does he say about the different reactions of people when they are robbed?

What are Hari Singh’s reactions to the prospect of receiving an education? Do they change over time? (Hint: Compare, for example, the thought: “I knew that once I could write like an educated man there would be no limit to what I could achieve” with these later thoughts: “Whole sentences, I knew, could one day bring me more than a few hundred rupees. It was a simple matter to steal — and sometimes just as simple to be caught. But to be a really big man, a clever and respected man, was something else.”) What makes him return to Anil?

How would you assess Griffin as a scientist?

After his first day’s experience with the hack driver the lawyer thinks of returning to New Mullion to practise law. Do you think he would have reconsidered this idea after his second visit?

Lutkins openly takes the lawyer all over the village. How is it that no one lets out the secret? (Hint: Notice that the hack driver asks the lawyer to keep out of sight behind him when they go into Fritz’s.) Can you find other such subtle ways in which Lutkins manipulates the tour?

What more does Bill say about Lutkins and his family?

Who does ‘I’ refer to in this story?

Do you think the lawyer was gullible? How could he have avoided being taken for a ride?