Class 10 English - Footprints Without Feet - Chapter The Midnight Visitor NCERT Solutions | Who is Fowler and what is his first auth

“Ausable did not fit any description of a secret agent Fowler had ever read.” What do secret agents in books and films look like, in your opinion? Discuss in groups or in class some stories or movies featuring spies, detectives and secret agents, and compare their appearance with that of Ausable in this story. (You may mention characters from fiction in languages other than English. In English fiction you may have come across Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, or Miss Marple. Have you watched any movies featuring James Bond?)

How does Ausable manage to make Max believe that there is a balcony attached to his room? Look back at his detailed description of it. What makes it a convincing story?

Looking back at the story, when do you think Ausable thought up his plan for getting rid of Max? Do you think he had worked out his plan in detail right from the beginning? Or did he make up a plan taking advantage of events as they happened?

How does Ausable say he got in?

How is Ausable different from other secret agents?

How has Max got in?

Why is Mrs Pumphrey worried about Tricki?

What does Horace Danby like to collect?

How did the invisible man first become visible?

How did a book become a turning point in Richard Ebright’s life?

What kind of a person is Mme Loisel — why is she always unhappy?

Why is the lawyer sent to New Mullion? What does he first think about the place?

Why is Bholi’s father worried about her?

Why was the twentieth century called the ‘Era of the Book’?

Who does ‘I’ refer to in this story?

What does she do to help him? Is she wise in this?

If you were in Noodle’s place, how would you handle Think-Tank’s mistakes?

What does Horace Danby like to collect?

What kind of a person is her husband?

Bholi’s real name is Sulekha. We are told this right at the beginning. But only in the last but one paragraph of the story is Bholi called Sulekha again. Why do you think she is called Sulekha at that point in the story?

Do you think Tricki was happy to go home? What do you think will happen now?

After his first day’s experience with the hack driver the lawyer thinks of returning to New Mullion to practise law. Do you think he would have reconsidered this idea after his second visit?

What more does Bill say about Lutkins and his family?

The course of the Loisels’ life changed due to the necklace. Comment.

Why does not Anil hand the thief over to the police? Do you think most people would have done so? In what ways is Anil different from such employers?

What are Hari Singh’s reactions to the prospect of receiving an education? Do they change over time? (Hint: Compare, for example, the thought: “I knew that once I could write like an educated man there would be no limit to what I could achieve” with these later thoughts: “Whole sentences, I knew, could one day bring me more than a few hundred rupees. It was a simple matter to steal — and sometimes just as simple to be caught. But to be a really big man, a clever and respected man, was something else.”) What makes him return to Anil?