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?

Is the narrator as rich as Tricki’s mistress?

How does the thief think Anil will react to the theft?

Who does ‘I’ refer to in this story?

What does he get from Anil in return for his work?

What kind of a person do you think the narrator, a veterinary surgeon, is? Would you say he is tactful as well as full of commonsense?

“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?

What more does Bill say about Lutkins and his family?

Why do you think Lutkins’ neighbours were anxious to meet the lawyer?

Why are books referred to as a man’s best companion? Which is your favourite book and why? Write a paragraph about that book.

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?