Class 10 NCERT Solutions English Chapter 4 - A Question Of Trust
A Question Of Trust Exercise 20
Solution 1
Horace Danby liked to collect rare, expensive books.
Solution 2
Horace Danby stole every year to buy rare, expensive books. Each year he planned carefully just what he would do, stole enough to last for twelve months, and secretly bought the books he loved to collect through an agent.
A Question Of Trust Exercise 22
Solution 1
A woman is speaking to Horace Danby. She was young, quite pretty, and was dressed in red.
Solution 2
The woman is the real culprit in the story. She managed to convince Horace that she was the lady of the house whose husband was away for a month and got him to break open the safe and give her the jewels. Not only did she escape with the jewels but because his fingerprints were all over the safe and the room he was arrested by the police.
A Question Of Trust Exercise 25
Solution 1
Yes, we begin to suspect before the end of the story that the lady was not the person Horace Danby took her to be. Had she been the true lady of the house she would not have been so calm and composed on seeing an intruder in her house. She does not raise an alarm nor does she call the police. Instead she asks the thief to help her open up the safe and take out her jewels. This behaviour is strange and at this point one realises that she is not the person Horace Danby took her to be.
Solution 2
The lady manages to deceive Horace Danby into thinking she is the lady of the house from her appearance, her voice and mannerisms. She was quite pretty, and was dressed in red like the lady of the house would be. She spoke with a quiet, kindly voice but with firmness in it. She informed him that she had heard his sneezing from the top of the house implying that, that was where she had her room. She walked to the fireplace and straightened the ornaments there showing her familiarity with the place. The dog Sherry was rubbing against her and she spoke to it in a casual manner and said he was behaving like she had been away for a month. She was very confident and casual in her behaviour and so Horace does not suspect that something is wrong.
Solution 3
The description is apt for Horace Danby because everyone thought that he was a good and honest citizen. He was about fifty years old and unmarried, and he lived with a housekeeper who worried over his health. He was usually very well and happy except for attacks of hay fever in summer. He made locks and was successful enough at his business to have two helpers.
However, although he was good and respectable he was not completely honest because fifteen years ago, Horace had served his first and only sentence in a prison library. He robbed only from those who had a lot of money and used the money secretly to buy rare, expensive books. Although the intention of buying books was good the fact that he had to steal to achieve this end showed that he was not completely honest.
He cannot be categorised as a typical thief because he robbed only from those who had a lot of money and used the money secretly to buy rare, expensive books through an agent. Besides, he didn’t rob often but a safe every year. Each year he planned carefully just what he would do and stole enough to last him for twelve months.
Solution 4
Horace Danby was a meticulous planner and considered himself a successful robber but still he faltered. Before he decided to rob the house at Shotover Grange he had studied it for two weeks. He had looked at its rooms, its electric wiring, its paths and its garden. He knew that the two servants, who remained in the Grange while the family was in London, had gone to the movies and so planned to rob the house at that time. He had even learned the name of the dog.
However in his eagerness to please the lady of the house and seeing that she might help him escape, he took off his gloves and gave her his cigarette lighter. A little later when she asked him to break open the safe and retrieve her jewels trusting her totally he opened the safe for her without putting back his gloves and as a result his fingerprints were found not only on the safe but all over the room. Therefore inspite of all his meticulous planning he was fooled by the lady whom he did not realise was actually a thief herself and was finally arrested by the police.
