Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow:
Mabel : Oh! Why didn’t I face it? But I couldn’t- I had to believe.
Dancy : And now you can’t. It’s the end, Mabel.
Mabel : [Looking up at him] No.
Dancy : Forgive me!
Mable : [Putting her hand on his head] Yes; oh, yes! I think I’ve known a long time, really. Only – why? What made you?
(i) How does Dancy respond to Mabel’s question?
(ii) What makes Dancy say ‘that’s not in human nature’ a little later?
(iii) Why does Inspector Dede arrive at Dancy’s house?
How does Mabel try to stall him?
(iv) To whom was Dancy’s suicide note addressed? What had he written in it?
(v) What does Margaret mean when she says that keeping faith is ‘not enough’ and ‘we’ve all done that’?
What, in your opinion, should his friends have done?
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(i) He was only looting a looter. / The money was as much Dancy’s / a decent person would have offered him half / De Levis had a contemptuous look on his face / this made Dancy angry / He is proud of the jump / nothing in the war took such nerve.
(ii) Mabel says she will go on loving him / If Dancy goes to prison she will wait / She doesn’t care what he did / She will be the same when he comes back to her.
(iii)
- To arrest Dancy.
- Asks him to come back in half an hour. / Two lives are at stake / they have only been married four months.
(iv)
- Major Colford
- This is the only decent thing he can do. / It is unfair to Mabel. / It is only another jump. / A pistol keeps faith
(v)
- Comments satirically on Dancy’s observation that only a pistol keeps faith / everybody stood by Dancy / supported him even though he had committed the theft / it was not enough to protect his honour / or save his life.
- Personal response.