Did you begin to suspect, before the end of the story, that the lady was not the person Horace Danby took her to be? If so, at what point did you realise this, and how?
Yes, there are several subtle clues in the story that make the reader suspect the lady is not the owner's wife before the ending. The first hint appears when she says, "I have always liked the wrong kind of people" — this statement is unusual for a lady of the house and subtly suggests her association with the criminal world.
Another major clue is when she claims she forgot the numbers to open the safe. It is highly improbable that the owner's wife would forget the combination to her own safe, and even more unlikely that she would ask a burglar to break it open for her. A genuine owner would not need to "break" their own safe.
Her overall behaviour is also suspicious — she remains calm and composed upon encountering a burglar, treating the situation with amusement rather than fear or shock. She even negotiates with Horace and confidently threatens to call the police, which seems more like manipulation than genuine concern.
The final confirmation comes at the end when the real wife is described as a "gray-haired, sharp-tongued woman of sixty", completely different from the young, pretty woman in red who tricked Horace. This reveals she was a fellow thief who exploited Horace's fear of prison.
Explanation
The question tests a student's ability to identify foreshadowing and subtle hints in the text. The key moments that reveal the lady's true identity include: (1) her statement about liking 'the wrong kind of people', (2) her improbable claim of forgetting the safe combination, (3) her calm negotiation with a burglar instead of fear, and (4) the contrast between her description and the real wife's description. Students should connect these clues to show how the author builds suspicion before the final reveal.
Solution Steps
Step 1: Identify the lady's suspicious statement - 'I have always liked the wrong kind of people' - which hints at her criminal associations.
Step 2: Note the implausibility of the owner's wife forgetting her own safe combination and needing a burglar to break it.
Step 3: Observe her unnatural calmness and confident negotiation with Horace, which doesn't match a typical homeowner's reaction.
Step 4: Compare her description (young, pretty, dressed in red) with the real wife (gray-haired, sharp-tongued woman of sixty) to confirm the deception.