ENGLISH: CLASS 10 LESSON 12: A QUESTION OF TRUST BY VICTOR CANNING

A Question Of Trust All Questions Answers

A QUESTION OF TRUST QUESTIONS ANSWERS

A. Question Of Trust Questions And Answers

1. Who is Horace Danby? What type of man was he? [HSLC 2017]

OR “Horace Danby was a good and respectable, but not completely honest” – Why do you think his description is apt for Horace?

OR Judge the honesty of Horace Danby. Also comment whether he was a typical thief. OR Give a description of Horace Danby. What does he like to collect? Why was he not completely honest?

Answer: Horace Danby was a good and respectable citizen. He was about fifty years old. However, he was not completely honest. He dealt in locks and was successful in his trade. He had a hobby of reading rare and expensive books but not at his own cost. He would rather execute a robbery in any rich house and used the money to buy the books through an agent.

Everybody in society has an opinion that Horace is a good, honest citizen. He makes locks. But he used to rob only in one occasion in a year. His profession of making locks help him to cover his stealing. He loves reading books. He cannot be categorized as a typical thief because he did not take it up as a profession. Gaining any material objects was not his motive of stealing. He liked to buy rare and expensive books and read them.

2. Describe the meeting between Horace Danby and the woman.

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

OR How did the lady trick, Horace Danby? [HSLC 2019]

OR What are the subtle ways in which the lady manages to think to deceive Horace Danby into thinking she is the lady of the house?

OR Describe how Horace Danby was tricked and was arrested?

Answer: Horace Danby met a lady at the house of Shotover Grange. The lady introduced herself to be the wife of the owner of the house. Horace was very much afraid of being caught red-handed by the lady of the house. But the lady behaved very sociably without showing much fear and surprise of meeting a thief in her house. Horace saw a good chance to convince the lady for his escape. But the lady proposed that she would let him go only if he broke the safe for her.

The lady acted so confidently that Horace Danby could not have the slightest doubt that she was not the lady of the house. She had firmness in her voice. She invented a false story and told him that she wanted to wear the jewels as she had to go to a party that night. She also threatened him with the idea of prison. Thus, Horace Danby falls prey to the lady who was actually another thief. She stole the jewelry with the help of Horace Danby. Horace was arrested in charge of stealing the jewelry at the house in Shotover Grange. His fingerprints on the box worked as proof against him.

3. Who is the real culprit in the story “A Question of Trust”? Does he deserve the punishment? How did he become an assistant librarian in the prison? [H.S.L.C. 2018]

Answer: The real culprit in the story “A question of trust” is the lady who deceived Horace Danby.

Though Horace Danby could not succeed in his theft, he is guilty because he had any intention of committing theft. Moreover, he had already committed many thefts over the years. So, he deserved his punishment.

Horace Danby was arrested for the theft in Shotover Grange. He conducted the theft of buying books as he used to love books. So, in jail, he was awarded the job of an Assistant Librarian. Now he could read as many books as he could.

Story Details: This story of "Question of Trust" is all about a very strange personality Horace Danby. He was a successful lock maker and because of his well of trade morale, he had a high hall of fame in the city. But he was ridiculously book lover. Being book lover is not ridiculous, but the path he selected to satisfy the thrust of reading book can kill the common sense of even the wisest man on earth. He had to commit a theft in rich houses of the city to buy rare copies of books through an agent. A question generally strikes in the mind that he was such a big businessman, so why he had to steal to buy books.

Every year however he did only one mischief. He used to select a big prey for his black adventure and then the stealing he did would last for the whole year.

But this year his luck was not a bit favorable. A smarter lady deceived him and led him to jail. However in the jail, he was awarded the job of a Jail Librarian. He spent his days of punishment reading rare and expensive books.