THE MIDNIGHT VISITOR:
1. Give a brief description of Ausable .
Who is Ausable? What type of man he was?
Ans : Ausable is a secret agent. But he did not fit as a secret agent.
Ausable lived in a small room on top of a French hotel. He had full of presence of mind. He was very fat. He could speak French and German but he could not stop his American accent. He lived in Paris where he befooled Max showing him a false balcony.
2. Who was Fowler ? Give a brief description of his meeting with Ausable ? [HSLC-2018]
Ans : Fowler was a young romantic writer .
He envisioned mysterious figures in the night , the crack of pistols , drugs in wine . He was a writer of detective stories . Ausable gave him a telephone call to meet him in his rooms . Accordingly he came and met Ausable in his room . Ausable said over his shoulder that he had been told he was a spy . Then Ausable said that Fowler must have felt disillusioned . Then he told him about a paper for which several men and women had risked their lives . The letter had come to him . He added that soon that paper might affect the course of history. Then Ausable switched on the light . Max was surprised to see in Ausable’s room a man standing holding a small pistol . The man holding the pistol was Max . Ausable asked him what he had been doing in his room .
3. Who was Max ? Give a brief description of his conversation with Ausable .[HSLC-2017]
Ans : Max was a spy . Ausable met him in his room . It seemed that they had known each other . Ausable thought that Max was in Berlin and was surprised to find him in his room . Max entered the room secretly while Ausable was not there . He was a slender man of moderate height . His pointed face was like that of a fox that he was a crafty person . He told Ausable that he had come with the idea of taking the letter from him as it would remain safer in his hands than in Ausable . Then Ausable wondered how Max could get into his room . He wanted to raise the matter with the management . Then with a view to hoodwink Max , Ausable told him about that imaginary balcony through which , as he suspected , Max had entered his room . Max said that he did not enter the room through any balcony . He entered using passkey . Max added that if he knew of the balcony it might have saved some trouble .
4. What did Ausable say about the balcony ? What purpose did it serve ? [HSLC-2015]
Ans : Ausable said about the imaginary balcony to dupe and hoodwink Max whom he found in his room while he was away . Finding Max in his room holding a pistol and demanding the report Ausable created the scene of the imaginary balcony . When Max said that he did not know about the balcony , Ausable replied that it was not his balcony and it belonged to the next apartment . He told Max that his room used to be a part of a larger unit and the next room through that door used to be the living room and that had the balcony . He added the balcony extended under his window . He told that Max could get on to that from the empty room two doors down . Further he said that somebody got down through that in the previous month and the management promised to block that .
The balcony served a big purpose . To escape from police Max turned the door knob , pushed with his left hand to free himself from the sill and dropped to the balcony . He screamed once shrilly and was heard no more . Ausable told Fowler at the end was no balcony .
5. How did Max try to get the report from Ausable ?What happened to him in the end and how ?
Ans : Ausable asked Max how he came to know about the report . Max smiled evilly and asked in return how Ausable’s men got the same report . He added that he would get the report that night . Max was warning the pistol to threaten Fowler and Ausable .
Just then a sudden knocking at the door was heard . Max Asked who there at the window . Fowler jumped . But Ausable said that there must be some policeman at the door . He added that such an important paper for which they had been waiting must have some extra protection . So he called the police to check him to make sure that everything was alright . Ausable asked Max what he would want to do . Further he said that if he did not open the door , they would enter any way . Max’s face turned black with anger and he back swiftly towards the window . He asked Ausable to send the police way . Otherwise he threatened to shoot to take his chances . The knocking at the door grew louder .
Finally Max turned the door knob , pushed with his left hard to free himself and fell down through that imaginary balcony . Nothing more than a shrill scream was heard of him .
6. Briefly describe how Ausable defeated Max’s scheme to take away the report . [HSLC -2016]
Ans : Ausable and Fowler found inside Ausable’s small room on top of the sixth floor of a French hotel . It was late in the evening when they entered the room . The room had been closed and as reported by Max , he entered the room opening the door . He said this when Ausable tactfully mentioned of a balcony and asked Max if he had entered the room through the balcony . Max was holding a pistol and threatened to have the report .
In the mean time Ausable gave a vivid description of the imaginary balcony . He said that the balcony was a part of the next apartment and it extended to his window to his window. He even said that the management v had assured to block it . Naturally Max and Fowler were convinced about the existence of the balcony .
Just then there was heard a knocking at the door and it grew louder and more frequent . Asked by Max Ausable said that he had collected the police to provide extra protection to the report . Hearing about the police Max went near the window and with one of his legs put on the sill he threatened to shoot the policeman . When the knocking grew louder , Max with a view to escaping from police pushed with his left hand . His idea was that he would land on the balcony . But he fell down . Only a shrill scream of his was heard .
7. Who, between Ausable and Max, do you think is more intelligent ?[HSLC-2020]
Ans : Undoubtedly Ausable is more intelligent than Max. The progress of the story justifies Ausable more intelligent nature and his approach to solve the problem . He was a cool headed person who did not raise any hue and cry when he found Max holding a pistol in his locked room . Ausable was so prudent and quick witted to deceive Max’s threat he created the story of that balcony which was nothing but a figment of imagination . He also created the scene of knocking at the door of the room to let Max know that policeman were there at the gate . Finally , believing in Ausable’s words he wanted to escape through the balcony which was really not there . He fell down to where he did not know . Only a shrill was heard as his last voice .
Thus Ausable with his presence of mind frustrated Max’s design and got rid of him . Ausable’s activities proved him to be more intelligent than Max.
FOOTPRINTS WITHOUT FEET : HSLC -2022
1. Who was Griffin ? How and why did he become invisible ? How did he become a homeless wonderer ? [HSLC-2018]
Ans : Griffin was a scientist .
He carried experiment after experiment to prove that human body could become invisible . Finally he swallowed some rare drugs and his body became as transparent as a sheet of glass . But it also remained as solid as glass . Though Griffin was a scientist he was a lawless person . His landlord disliked him and tried to eject him . To take revenge on his landlord Griffin set fire to the house . To escape without being seen he had to remove his clothes . Thus he became a homeless wonderer . Having no clothes on his body , no money and quite invisible he went on wandering until he happened to step in some mud and left foot prints wherever he walked .
2. Describe Griffins experience in Drury Lane . [HSLC-2017]
Ans : After Griffin’s adventure in the London Store , he decided to try the stock of a theatrical company . His hope was to find some new clothes and something that would hide the space above his soldiers . Shivering with cold he hurried to Drury Lane , the centre of the theatrical world . Soon he found a suitable shop . He made his way upstairs in the same invisible state . After a little while he came out wearing bandages round his forehead , dark glass , false nose , big bushy side-whiskers and a large hat . To escape without being seen he attracted the shopkeeper from behind . Then he robbed him of all the money he could get .
3. How and why did Griffin come to the village of Iping ? Why does Mrs. Hall find him eccentric ? [ HSLC-2015]
Ans : Griffin , the scientist wanted to get away from London . He took a train and came to the village Iping . His idea in coming to Iping was to avoid crowded London . At Iping he booked two rooms of an inn . The arrival of stranger in an inn in winter was an unusual event . The arrival of such an uncommon stranger made people to talk about him . Mrs. Hall , the Landlord’s tried to be friendly with him . But Griffin had no desire to talk . He told her that his reason for coming to Iping was his desire for solitude and he so he did not wish to be disturbed in his work . Besides , he added that an accident had affected his face . His words satisfied her to think him as an eccentric man . Another reason for her satisfaction was that he had paid her in advance .
4. Briefly describe the extraordinary behaviour of Mrs . Hall’s furniture . [HSLC -2016]
Ans : Getting up very early in the morning the landlord and his found the door of the scientist wide open . Usually it remained shut and locked and he was furious to find anyone entering his room . They thoroughly investigated the room and found to their surprise that the cloths he always wore , lying about in the room . All of a sudden Mrs Hall heard a sniff close to her ear . A moment later the hat on the bed post leapt up and dashed itself into her face . Then bedroom chair became alive . It sprang into the air and charged straight at her legs . As she and her husband turned away in terror the chair pushed them out of the room . Then the door slammed and locked after them . Mrs. Hall was about to fall out of panic. She had somehow caused those enter into her furniture . She was almost in hysterics . Mrs . Hall lamented that her poor mother used to sit in that chair .
5. What curious episode occurs in the study ?
Describe how Griffin steals the money from the clergy man’s study . What was the clergyman’s reaction ?Or“ Shortly afterwards a curious episode occurred.”Narrate briefly the curious episode ? [ TEST 2018 ]
Ans : The money That Griffin had stolen from the shopkeeper at Drury Lane in London did not last long and he had to admit to Mrs. Hall that he had no cash . However , he pretended that he was expecting a cheque . Shortly afterwards a curious episode occurred . The clergyman and his wife was awakened very early in the morning by noises in the study . Creeping downstairs they heard the chink of money being taken from the clergyman’s desk . Without making any noise the clergy opened the door with the help of a poker. He was amazed to see that there was no one in the room . His wife looked behind the curtains , under the desk and even in the chimney . No, there was nobody in the room . Yet they found the desk open and the housekeeping money was missing . The helpless clergyman simply that the whole incident was an extraordinary one .
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