CBSE Class 10 · English · board exam 2027
Chapter 3: The Midnight Visitor — notes
The chapter’s 5 parts in the book’s order — the first idea of each and the points Medha Ma’am writes on the board — and the summary at the end. The full lesson and a check question for each part are in the app.
1. Ausable: A secret agent who doesn't look like one
Okay, so, let's meet Ausable.
- • Ausable = secret agent, but fat and ordinary-looking
- • Spoke French, German only 'passably'
- • American accent from Boston, 20 years in Paris
- • Fowler expected: pistols, drugs in wine, dark-eyed beauties
- • Got instead: a dull evening, a prosaic telephone call
2. Max appears with a pistol
Okay, so, Ausable switches on the light in his room.
- • Light switched on → Max stands with a pistol
- • Max: slender, fox-like, 'crafty, pointed countenance'
- • Max's demand: the report on new missiles
- • Max's words: 'safer in my hands than in yours'
- • Max thought Ausable was in Berlin? No – Ausable thought Max was in Berlin
3. The story of the balcony
Okay, so let's look at what Ausable says here.
- • Ausable: 'somebody got in through that balcony' (2nd time this month)
- • Max: actually entered with a passkey
- • Ausable's explanation: room once part of bigger unit
- • Next room = old living room, had the balcony
- • Balcony reachable from empty room two doors down
- • Management promised to block it off – never did
4. The knock at the door and Max's escape
Okay, so now something sudden happens.
- • Knock at door → Ausable: 'That will be the police'
- • Max backs to window, swings leg over sill
- • Max's warning: 'I will wait on the balcony... I'll shoot'
- • Doorknob turns → Max drops to 'balcony'
- • Max screams once, shrilly, as he drops
5. The truth: there was no balcony, no police
Okay, so the door finally opens.
- • Door opens: not police, but Henry the waiter
- • Henry brings tray, bottle, two glasses ('drink you ordered')
- • Ausable: 'There were no police. Only Henry'
- • Fowler asks about the man on the balcony
- • Ausable: 'he won't return... there is no balcony'
Summary
Okay, so let's go back over the story once more. You learned that Ausable is a secret agent, but he doesn't look like the spies in books and films. Still, he's clever all the same. Max, another agent, breaks into his room with a pistol. He wants to steal an important report about new missiles. Now see what Ausable does — he invents a detailed, convincing story about a balcony outside his window, just to explain how intruders get in. Then a knock comes. Ausable says it's the police, and warns of danger. So Max panics, and tries to escape onto the balcony, screaming as he drops. In the end, the knock is only Henry, the waiter, with drinks. And here's the twist — Ausable reveals there was no balcony at all. So Max will not return. The story shows Ausable's calm presence of mind — he uses only his wits and his words to get rid of a dangerous enemy. Now tell me — what do you think was the cleverest part of Ausable's plan?
AskMedha · Medha Ma’am — CBSE Class 10 English, Chapter 3. Written from the textbook, checked twice.
Questions parents and students ask
- How do I get the "The Midnight Visitor" notes as a PDF?
- Press "Save as PDF" — the phone’s print sheet opens; choose "Save as PDF" there. The PDF holds the notes only.
- Where are these notes written from?
- From the chapter’s own textbook text, part by part, in the book’s own terms; a second, independent model then checked every part against the book. The full lesson, a check question for each part and the practice are in the AskMedha app.
The same preparation, with Medha Ma’am — on your phone
Every question of every chapter with its model answer, practice questions in the board’s own shapes, 60 minutes of class a day, written answers marked, a test every Sunday and a WhatsApp report to parents.
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