Probable Q&A on A Question of Trust

A QUESTION OF TRUST

Q.1. What does Horace Danby like to collect? Why does he steal every year?

Ans: Horace Danby likes to collect rare and expensive books.

He steals every year in order to see him through a year and to buy rare and expensive books through an agent. For this, he planned carefully and robbed a safe every year.

Q.2. Who is Horace Danby? What kind of person is he? How did he become the Assistant Librarian in the prison?

Ans: Horace Danby is a good and respectable person in public view, but is not completely honest. He is a peculiar thief who robs a safe every year to buy books.

Horace had served his first sentence in a prison library fifteen years ago. He was tricked by a charming and young lady who was in the same profession. He was caught by the police for robbery at Shotover Grange. At the prison, he was made the Assistant Librarian keeping in view his previous experience in the prison library.

Q.3. Horace Danby was a meticulous planner but still he faltered. Where did he go wrong and why?

Ans: Horace Danby was a meticulous planner. Each year, he planned carefully just what he would do. Before robbing at Shotover Grange he had studied the house for two weeks, looked at its electric wiring, its paths and its garden. He crossed over the garden wall, carried his bag full of tools and entered the kitchen with the key hung outside. He wore a pair of gloves so that no fingerprint was left. He had already befriended their pet dog “Sherry”. He had even read a magazine article describing the interior of this house. Everything was done meticulously upto this. But when he could not resist sneezing, another thief, who was upstairs, got alarmed. She was a pretty young lady. She quickly understood that he was a thief. But Horace took her for the lady of the house. The lady took this opportunity and tricked him. Horace faltered because he had lesser presence of mind as compared to the lady. He had studied everything minutely except the people living in the house. Besides, he had a faith in the saying, ‘honour among thieves’.

Q.4. 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 he suspect that something is wrong?

Ans: Horace Danby could not resist himself from sneezing inside Shotover Grange. Quite interestingly, there was another thief – a pretty young lady – upstairs, who had heard his sneezing. She came downstairs and asked him, “What is it? A cold or a hay fever?” Horace replied without a thought and then saw her. He thought her to be one of the family members. Instead of running away, he thought of avoiding trouble by treating her the right way. The lady was too cunning a thief. She threatened of handing him over to the police. Horace too tried to frighten, but to no effect. She began demoralising him saying, “Society must be protected from men like you”. Horace started begging her again and again to let him go. She agreed on one condition, that Horace must have to open the safe so that she might wear the jewels to a party that night. Horace did the same and went away happily. But on the third day, a policeman arrested him for jewel robbery.

Q.5. “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?

Ans: In public view, Horace Danby was good and respectable. He was about fifty years old and unmarried. He lived with a housekeeper. He ran …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

>> The full article is available at 

englishforschools.co.nf (click here)