ENGLISH LESSON

A Question Of Trust
BY:VICTOR CANNING
 About The Author
Victor Canning (16 June 1911 – 21 February 1986) was a
prolific British writer of novels and thrillers who
flourished in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. He was
personally reticent, writing no memoirs and giving
relatively few newspaper interviews.
 Introduction
The story is about a man named Horace Danby who is
50 years old and everyone around him thinks he is a
good and an honest man. He used to build locks and
used to earn enough profit so that he could hire two
servants to help him. He was sent to jail once about 15
years ago because he used to commit robberies every
year. This year, when he goes to a house for robbery, he
meets a woman who pretends to be the owner of the
house. Later when he leaves from there and is arrested
after 2-3 days, he comes to know the truth of that lady.
Character
Sketch
Horace
Danby
Horace Danby
Horace Danby was a central character in the story "Question of Trust"
written by Victor Canning. He(Horace Danby) was an unmarried man of
about 50 years. He was a good natured man, therefore everyone liked
him. He was fairly successful in his profession of lock making. He was
considered as a good and respectable citizen and was very generous by
nature. He was passionate about reading rare and expensive books. he
had a good reputation in the society as well as he was a healthy man
but sometime he was suffering from hay fever that is he has allergy
from flowers. he was considered as honest but in real sense he was a
typical thief. he used to stole a safe every year from those who had a
lot of he never thought of hurting anybody therefore he did not carry
any weapons with him.
He was considered as a good and respectable citizen and was
very generous by nature. He was passionate about reading rare
and
expensive books. he had a good reputation in the society as well
as he was a healthy man but sometime he was suffering from
hay fever that is he has allergy from flowers. he was
considered as honest but in real sense he was a typical thief. he
used to stole a safe every year from those who had a lot of
money. he never thought of hurting anybody therefore he did
not carry any weapons. in fact he stole money only to complete
his desire of reading rare and expensive book not for enjoy and
drink.
The Lady
in Red
The Lady in Red:
In the story "A Question of Trust". She overpowers Horace Danby
psychologically and forced Horace Danby to break open the safe for
her without wearing gloves in his hands. She lied Horace that she was
the owner of the house at Shotover Grange and she wanted to wear
the jewellery lying in the safe in a party in the evening. She further
told Horace that she forgot the secret number of the lock to open it.
Horace comes in her trick as he was afraid of going to prison and he
broke opened the safe without wearing gloves in his hands for her. In
this way she presented herself the owner of the house and tricked
Horace very easily. She does not share the loot with Horace Danby
and grabbed the entire jewellery without sharing it with Horace. She
is the real culprit in the story and does not know " Honour among
Thief "
Summary
Question Of Trust
The story is about a 50 year old man who makes locks and lives with
his housekeeper. He is a good citizen but not an honest one as he
commits a robbery every year. He plans his robberies in such a way
that the money he gets from there lasts him for at least an year and
he is able to buy rare and expensive books with it. He buys these books
because he is really fond of collecting rare and expensive books. He
plans to commit a robbery at a grange named Shotover Grange. He
takes all the information about the house like where the family had
gone, how many servants were there in the house, what was the name
of the dog, the wiring in the house, the safe in the house and even
information like how much worth of jewels were there in the safe. The
real twist in the story comes when he reaches the grange to commit a
robbery and a woman claiming to be the owner's wife enters.
She gives him an option that she will forget that she had seen him if
he opens the safe for her as she has forgotten the code of the safe and
has to go to a party. He does not realize that he is opening the safe for
another thief and that she is not the actual owner of the house. He
leaves happily thinking that he is safe but doesn't realize the fact that
he had opened the safe for someone else that too without wearing his
gloves. 3 days later a police officer comes and arrests him saying that
his fingerprints had been found at the shotover grange. He then
realizes that he had been fooled by a lady who was herself a thief
and from the same background as his. He is sent to the jail and
becomes an assistant librarian. He feels angry whenever someone talks
about honour among thieves as he had been cheated by one from his
own community.
 In the chapter – A Question of
Trust focuses on the message for
students that we should not
trust anyone blindly without
finding out the truth about that
person.
T
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!
Thank
You! By:S.M.Kailash Raj
& Kousika