A Question of Trust | CBSE Class 10 English Notes
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Who is Victor Canning and what is "A Question of Trust" about?
"A Question of Trust" is written by Victor Canning, whose name appears at the head of the chapter.
The story is built around Horace Danby, a lock maker who is "good and respectable" in the eyes of everyone around him, yet leads a hidden life as a careful, yearly burglar.
The story opens with a riddle for the reader: "It is said that you must set a thief to catch a thief. But it is also said that there is honour among thieves.
Which saying does this story illustrate?" This framing question signals that the narrative is really about trust, deception and the double nature of its central character.
The excerpt follows Horace as he prepares for and carries out a robbery at a country house called Shotover Grange, using the skills of his legitimate trade as a locksmith to break into a safe.
The narrative is told in the third person, closely following Horace's thoughts, so the reader sees the robbery entirely from the burglar's point of view, which makes his calm confidence and sudden interruption by hay fever feel especially immediate.
Two "Read and find out" questions are set before the story: what Horace likes to collect, and why he steals every year. Both are answered directly by details given in the text, discussed later in this note.
What happens in the story, part by part?
Part 1: Horace Danby's double life
Horace Danby is introduced as about fifty years old, unmarried, and living with a worried housekeeper. He is "usually very well and happy" apart from summer attacks of hay fever.
He runs a successful lock-making business with two helpers, and is thought entirely honest. Fifteen years earlier he had served "his first and only sentence" in prison, where he discovered a love of rare, expensive books.
Since then he has robbed a safe once a year, planning carefully, stealing enough to last twelve months, and buying his books secretly through an agent.
Part 2: Planning the robbery at Shotover Grange
On a bright July day, Horace feels confident that this year's robbery will go as smoothly as the others. For two weeks he has studied the house, its wiring, its paths and its garden.
He waits until the two servants leave for the cinema while the family is away in London, then comes out from behind the garden wall carrying a bag of tools, "in spite of a little tickle of hay fever."
Part 3: Entering the house
Horace knows the jewels in the safe are worth about fifteen thousand pounds, and expects to get at least five thousand by selling them gradually, enough to buy three books he wants in the autumn.
He takes the key from its usual hook, wearing gloves because he was "always careful not to leave any fingerprints" A small dog, Sherry, stirs in the kitchen; Horace calms it simply by calling it by name in a friendly voice.
Part 4: Opening the safe and the unexpected voice
In the drawing room, Horace finds the safe behind "a rather poor painting," exactly as a magazine article about the house had described.
He cuts the wire of a "poorly built" burglar alarm and begins work, but a bowl of flowers in the room sets off his hay fever.
As he buries his face in his handkerchief, a voice suddenly asks from the doorway, "What is it? A cold or hay fever?" Before he can stop himself, Horace blurts out "Hay fever," and the voice offers advice about finding a cure, adding, "I heard you from the top of the house just now." The excerpt ends at this tense moment, with Horace's presence now known to someone inside the house.
Who are the characters?
Horace Danby
Horace is the central figure: a respected, successful locksmith who is privately a skilled, careful thief.
He is described as "good and respectable, but not completely honest." His crime is driven not by greed for luxury but by a genuine love of rare books, and he plans every robbery with patience, discipline and attention to small details such as wiring, paths and the household routine.
The housekeeper
Horace's housekeeper lives with him and "worried over his health." The housekeeper is mentioned briefly at the start of the story to establish Horace's ordinary, domestic life and his reputation as a respectable citizen, which contrasts sharply with his secret activity.
Sherry, the dog
Sherry is the small dog left in the kitchen at Shotover Grange. On seeing Horace, it "stirred, made a noise, and moved its tail in a friendly way." Horace calms it instantly by using its name gently, showing both his expertise with animals and the eerie ease with which he moves through a house that is not his own.
The stranger at the doorway
Near the end of the excerpt, an unnamed voice speaks to Horace from the doorway, asking about his "cold or hay fever" and offering advice about treatment.
This person has apparently been listening "from the top of the house," and their sudden, calm question creates the story's central moment of tension, since Horace is no longer alone or unseen.
How does Horace Danby plan and carry out his robbery?
Horace's method relies on patience rather than force. He spends "two weeks" studying Shotover Grange in advance, observing "its rooms, its electric wiring, its paths and its garden," so that nothing about the house's layout surprises him on the day of the robbery.
He times his entry carefully, waiting until the two servants "had gone to the movies" while the family is in London, so that the house is effectively empty.
He then emerges "from behind the garden wall," carrying his tools "carefully packed in a bag on his back," showing a methodical, almost professional approach to what is, in effect, a criminal job.
Inside, he takes practical precautions: he wears gloves because he is "always careful not to leave any fingerprints," and he takes the key from the hook where the housekeeper habitually hangs it rather than forcing a lock.
He also knows, from "a magazine article" describing the house and its rooms, that the drawing-room painting hides the safe, so he does not need to search for it.
Before beginning work on the safe, Horace deals with the house's security: he goes "into the hall to cut" the wire of the burglar alarm, which he judges to be "poorly built." Only after this does he set out his tools and start on the safe itself, confident because "he had lived with locks and safes all his life."
Why is the dog Sherry important to the story?
Sherry's brief appearance matters because it shows how completely Horace has prepared for this robbery, and how calm he remains under pressure.
Rather than panicking when the dog stirs and makes a noise, he simply says, "All right, Sherry," and the story tells us that "all you had to do to keep dogs quiet was to call them by their right names, and show them love."
This detail reveals two things about Horace at once. First, it shows his careful research: he already knows the dog's name, which means he has studied the household closely enough to learn even this small, personal fact before ever setting foot inside.
Second, it reveals something gentle in his character, since his ease with animals suggests a man who is not cruel or violent, only quietly dishonest. He treats the dog with the same patient confidence he brings to the safe itself.
The moment also works as a small piece of dramatic irony for the reader: the one living creature in the house that might have raised an alarm is calmed almost instantly by a friendly word, while it is an entirely unexpected human voice, not the dog, that eventually interrupts Horace's work and ends the excerpt on a note of real suspense.
Sherry's friendly tail-wagging also quietly contrasts with the later, far less friendly surprise of the stranger's question from the doorway, sharpening the shift in mood.
What does the opening proverb question suggest about the story?
The story opens with two contrasting sayings placed before the title: "you must set a thief to catch a thief" and "there is honour among thieves." The writer asks directly, "Which saying does this story illustrate?" This question frames everything that follows and invites the reader to judge Horace's actions against both ideas as the plot develops.
Within the part of the story given here, Horace himself embodies the first saying in a literal sense: he is a locksmith, a man whose trade is built on understanding locks and safes, and this very skill is what makes him "successful enough" as a thief.
His years of experience with locks directly enable his yearly robberies, so his professional knowledge and his criminal skill are one and the same; the honest trade and the dishonest crime grow from a single source.
The second saying, about honour among thieves, has not yet been tested in the events given here, since the story breaks off just as another person's voice is heard from the doorway.
The question the writer poses at the start therefore remains genuinely open within this excerpt, and is clearly intended to be answered only once the full encounter with the stranger plays out, beyond the part reproduced here.
How does the writer build suspense and irony in the narrative?
Victor Canning builds tension through small, careful details rather than dramatic action. The story repeatedly reminds the reader of Horace's hay fever: first as "a little tickle," then as a "tickle" near the flowers, and finally as a full sneeze that he cannot suppress, so that this apparently minor weakness is quietly built up as a potential threat to his careful plan.
There is also a strong vein of irony in how the robbery is made easy for Horace.
The householders' own carelessness, a poorly built burglar alarm, a key left openly on a hook, and a magazine article revealing the safe's hiding place, work against them rather than protecting their valuables.
The narrator makes this explicit through Horace's own thought: "How foolish people are when they own valuable things."
The final lines of the excerpt use a classic technique of suspense: the sudden, calm voice from the doorway.
Because the reader has been shown everything from Horace's point of view, the unexpected question "What is it? A cold or hay fever?" is as startling to the reader as it is to Horace, since neither has had any warning that someone else is present in the house.
The stranger's final remark, "I heard you from the top of the house just now," reveals that Horace has been overheard for some time, turning his confident planning into sudden, quiet danger.
What themes does the story explore?
Honesty and a double life
The story's central theme is the gap between appearance and reality. Horace is "thought" by everyone to be "a good, honest citizen," yet the narrator tells us plainly that he is "good and respectable, but not completely honest." His entire double life, as both a respected business owner and a secret yearly burglar, is built on this contradiction.
Trust and suspicion
Trust runs through the story in several small ways: the housekeeper trusts Horace with her worry over his health, the household trusts a hook by the door to keep its key safe, and Horace himself trusts his own careful research and skill.
The title's question of trust is also set up directly by the opening proverbs about thieves, which ask the reader to judge how much, and what kind of, trust can exist between people engaged in deception.
Obsession with collecting
Horace's crime is driven by a genuine passion rather than simple greed. He "loved rare, expensive books," and this love, first discovered in a "prison library," becomes the motive for an entire pattern of yearly crime.
His planning for "three very interesting books coming up for sale in the autumn" shows how a private obsession can shape a person's hidden choices.
Irony of carelessness and security
The story repeatedly shows that wealth and apparent security do not guarantee safety. The burglar alarm at Shotover Grange is "poorly built," the key hangs openly on a hook, and a magazine article has already revealed exactly where the safe is hidden.
Horace's own reflection, "How foolish people are when they own valuable things," sums up this ironic theme directly.
What key quotations stand out?
The quotations below trace the arc of the excerpt: Horace's hidden double life, his real motive for stealing, his calm handling of the dog Sherry, his private irony about careless households, and the sudden voice that interrupts him. Together they show how the narrator keeps the reader inside Horace's point of view until the very last line.
Each line is worth reading closely for what it reveals about character and tone: the first establishes the central contradiction of "respectable but not completely honest," the next explains why he steals at all, and the last two mark the story's turning point from confident planning to sudden exposure.
"Yes, Horace Danby was good and respectable — but not completely honest." (Narrator, introducing Horace's double life)
"He loved rare, expensive books." (Narrator, explaining Horace's motive for his yearly robberies)
"All you had to do to keep dogs quiet was to call them by their right names, and show them love." (Narrator, on how Horace calms Sherry)
"How foolish people are when they own valuable things, Horace thought." (Horace's private reflection during the robbery)
"What is it? A cold or hay fever?" (The unknown voice, speaking suddenly from the doorway)
"I heard you from the top of the house just now." (The stranger, revealing they have been listening)
What are the answers to the textbook questions?
What does Horace Danby like to collect? Horace likes to collect "rare, expensive books." His love of books began fifteen years earlier, during his only prison sentence, when he discovered this passion while serving time in a prison library.
Why does he steal every year? He steals every year to fund this love of books.
Each year he plans a robbery carefully, steals "enough to last for twelve months," and then "secretly bought the books he loved through an agent," using a single well-planned theft to support an entire year of quiet, private collecting.
Which saying, "set a thief to catch a thief" or "honour among thieves," does the story illustrate? Within the part of the story given here, Horace clearly shows the skill suggested by the first saying, since his professional knowledge of locks and safes as a locksmith is exactly what makes him successful as a thief.
Whether the second saying, about honour among thieves, applies cannot yet be judged from this excerpt, since the story is interrupted before the stranger's identity or intentions become clear, so this question is deliberately left open at this point in the narrative, awaiting the fuller story beyond this section.
A reader asked to compare the two sayings at this stage should therefore note that the excerpt itself answers only the first half of the riddle directly, through Horace's trade and conduct, while the second half depends on events not yet shown.
Glossary
- Hay fever — an allergic reaction to pollen or dust, causing sneezing and a running or itching nose.
- Respectable — considered honest and having a good reputation in the eyes of others.
- Agent — a person who acts on another person's behalf, here someone who secretly buys books for Horace.
- Burglar alarm — a device fitted in a house to give warning of unauthorised entry.
- Drawing room — a room in a large house used for receiving guests.
- Fingerprints — marks left by the ridges of a person's fingers, often used as evidence of identity.
- Grange — a large country house, often with farm buildings attached.
- Housekeeper — a person employed to manage the domestic affairs of a household.
- Sentence — a punishment, especially a period of imprisonment, decided by a court.
- Hindering — getting in the way of, or delaying, someone's actions.
- Hook — a curved fitting, here used to hang a door key outside a house.
- Gloves — coverings for the hands, worn here to avoid leaving fingerprints.
- Tickle — a slight, irritating sensation, here felt in the nose just before a sneeze.
- Wiring — the system of electric wires in a building, studied by Horace before the robbery.
- Safe — a strong, lockable box or cabinet used for storing valuables.
Common errors and misconceptions
- Misconception: Horace Danby is shown as a violent or aggressive criminal. Correct: he is calm and non-violent throughout, even speaking gently to the dog rather than using any force.
- Misconception: Horace steals to live a lavish, wealthy lifestyle. Correct: the text states he steals specifically to buy "rare, expensive books" through an agent.
- Misconception: The robbery takes place at night. Correct: it happens in daylight, in "bright July sunshine," while the servants are at the cinema.
- Misconception: Horace breaks into the house by force, such as smashing a lock or window. Correct: he simply takes the key from its usual hook after studying the house for two weeks.
- Misconception: The burglar alarm successfully stops Horace. Correct: the alarm is described as "poorly built," and Horace easily cuts its wire.
- Misconception: Horace discovers the location of the safe by searching the room. Correct: he already knew from a "magazine article" that the painting hid the safe.
- Misconception: The dog Sherry is the reason Horace is discovered. Correct: Sherry is calmed quickly by Horace; it is his hay fever, not the dog, that draws attention to him.
Exam-style questions with model answers
Q1. What does Horace Danby collect, and why? [2 marks]
- He collects rare, expensive books, a love he discovered during his only prison sentence.
- He steals once a year specifically to earn enough money to buy these books through an agent.
Q2. Why does Horace rob a safe only once a year rather than more often? [2 marks]
- Each robbery is planned to steal "enough to last for twelve months," so he does not need to steal more often.
- This single yearly theft is enough to buy the books he wants and keep him "happy for another year."
Q3. What preparations does Horace make before entering Shotover Grange on the day of the robbery? [3 marks]
- He studies the house for two weeks beforehand, including its rooms, electric wiring, paths and garden.
- He waits until the two servants leave the house to go to the cinema before approaching.
- He carries his tools carefully packed in a bag on his back as he comes out from behind the garden wall.
Q4. How does Horace avoid being noticed as he enters and moves through the house? [4 marks]
- He takes the kitchen door key from the hook where the housekeeper usually hangs it, instead of forcing an entry.
- He wears gloves throughout so as not to leave any fingerprints behind.
- He calms the dog, Sherry, by calling it by its name in a friendly way.
- He cuts the wire of the burglar alarm in the hall before approaching the safe.
Q5. Describe Horace Danby's character as it is shown in this part of the story. [5 marks]
- He is outwardly respectable, thought by everyone to be "a good, honest citizen" and a successful businessman.
- He is secretly a skilled thief, carrying out a carefully planned robbery once every year.
- He is calm and methodical, studying a house for two weeks before acting and carrying his tools with care.
- He is gentle rather than violent, shown by his friendly, confident handling of the dog Sherry.
- He is driven by a genuine passion for rare books rather than by greed for luxury or money in general.
Q6. What does Horace's thought, "How foolish people are when they own valuable things," suggest about the household at Shotover Grange? [2 marks]
- It suggests that the household has been careless with its security, since the burglar alarm is poorly built and the key is left openly on a hook.
- It suggests that information about the house, including the safe's location, had already been revealed publicly through a magazine article.
Q7. Trace, in order, the main events from Horace's entry into the garden to the moment he hears the unknown voice. [6 marks]
- Horace comes out from behind the garden wall carrying his bag of tools, having watched the servants leave for the cinema.
- He takes the kitchen door key from its hook and lets himself in, wearing gloves to avoid fingerprints.
- He finds Sherry the dog in the kitchen and calms it by calling it by name.
- He locates the safe in the drawing room, hidden behind a painting, as he had already learned from a magazine article.
- He goes into the hall to cut the wire of the poorly built burglar alarm, then returns to the drawing room.
- While working near a bowl of flowers, his hay fever worsens into loud sneezing, and he suddenly hears an unknown voice ask him about his "cold or hay fever" from the doorway.
Key takeaways
- Horace Danby is a respectable locksmith who secretly carries out one carefully planned robbery every year.
- His motive for stealing is his genuine love of rare, expensive books, not general greed for wealth.
- He uses his professional skill with locks and safes to plan and execute his crimes successfully.
- He calms the household dog, Sherry, simply by using its name and a friendly tone.
- The householders' own carelessness, a poor alarm, an exposed key and a revealing magazine article, make the robbery easier.
- Horace's hay fever, a minor physical weakness, threatens to expose him at the story's tense turning point.
- An unknown voice interrupts Horace from the doorway, ending the excerpt on a note of suspense.
- The opening proverbs about thieves frame the whole story's central question about trust and honour among criminals.
Test yourself
What is Horace Danby's trade or profession?
He makes locks and runs a successful business employing two helpers.
How long had Horace been studying Shotover Grange before the robbery?
He had been studying the house, including its rooms, wiring, paths and garden, for two weeks.
How does Horace avoid leaving evidence behind at the scene?
He always wears gloves while committing his robberies so that he does not leave any fingerprints.
How does Horace calm the dog Sherry in the kitchen?
He speaks to it gently and calls it by its correct name, "Sherry," which keeps it quiet and friendly.
How did Horace already know where the safe was hidden?
A magazine article about the house had described its rooms and mentioned that the painting hid a safe.
What finally threatens to give Horace away during the robbery?
A bowl of flowers in the drawing room triggers his hay fever, causing loud sneezing that attracts attention.
What does the unknown voice ask Horace from the doorway?
It asks, "What is it? A cold or hay fever?" and later offers advice about finding a cure.