Footprints ch04 A Question of Trust - CBSE Test Papers

CBSE Test Paper 01
A Question of Trust
  1. What advice did the lady give to Horace about the treatment of his problem?
  2. How did ‘hay fever’ disturb Horace Danby?
  3. Who is the real culprit in the story?
  4. What does Horace Danby like to collect?
  5. What forced Horace to rob a safe every year?
  6. Horace was a successful thief because he carefully planned his robberies. Should we call him a successful thief and still appreciate his work? Why or why not?
  7. How did the lady in red outwit Horace Danby?
  8. “Horace Danby got angry when anyone talked about ‘honour among thieves’.” Explain.
CBSE Test Paper 01
A Question of Trust
Solution
  1. The lady in red advised Horace to cure his hay fever through special treatment. She suggested him to find out the plant that gave him that hay fever. She also suggested him to consult a doctor if he was serious about his work.
  2. When Horace entered the house at Shotover Grange to rob the safe, he felt a tickle in his nose due to a bowl of flowers kept on the table in the drawing room. He gave a little sneeze and put down his bag. Then he sneezed loudly because of the smell of flowers. Thus 'hay fever’ disturbed him.
  3. The real culprit in the story is the young and pretty lady in red. She introduces herself as the wife of the owner of the house, while Horace is robbing the safe. Horace gets deceived by her appearance and mannerism and consequently leaves his fingerprints on the safe. At the end, he gets arrested.
  4. Horace Danby is a locksmith by profession. But he likes to collect rare and expensive books. He is passionate about them and is very fond of reading such books. However, he doesn't have enough money to buy such books. So he steals once a year.
  5. Horace Danby was a locksmith by profession and was a respectable citizen of society. He loved collecting and reading rare and expensive books. But he didn’t have sufficient money to buy them. So, he robbed a safe every year to satisfy his passion for rare and expensive books.
  6. Yes, as a thief, Horace was successful because he carefully planned his robberies and completed them well. He was living his life as a good and honest citizen. However, the wealth he gathered from his successful robberies did not belong to him. By stealing other people’s valuables, he may have become successful but he was actually a criminal. He may be efficient in conducting his crimes so that he was successful, but we still cannot appreciate his work. Even as a thief, he the lady in red outwitted him during his last robbery. So Horace was clever and successful, but there were people cleverer and more successful than he was.
  7. Horace Danby managed his thefts very carefully. He was a meticulous planner. But he was outwitted by a lady in red when he was trying to rob a safe at Shot over Grange. The lady posed as the wife of the owner of the house. Actually, she was also a thief. She told Danby that she had promised her husband to take the jewels to their bank. But she had forgotten the numbers to open the safe. She wanted to wear the jewels to a party. Horace, as per his research, thought that the owner of the house was a lady of sixty. But he was so moved by the appearance of the lady in red that he believed her and got befooled. He took off his gloves and opened the safe. He left his fingerprints on the safe. The lady deceived him and took the jewels. Thus, Horace Danby was an expert thief, but the lady in red outwitted him.
  8. Horace Danby got angry when anyone talked about ‘honour among thieves’. There was a reason behind it. He thought that thieves must have respect and maintain ethics among themselves. But the young lady in red, who was also a thief, didn’t follow it and cheated him. She was the main force who sent him to prison as she had deceived him. Although she too was a thief, she told him a lie that she was the wife of the owner of the house. She made a deal with him to let him go from there. According to the deal, she would allow him to go if he broke open the box and gave her all the costly jewels. He believed her that she was the real landlady. So he took off his gloves and broke open the box. This left his fingerprints on the safe, and he was arrested by the police.