“I hope you don’t mind the open window,” said Mrs. Sappleton briskly; “my husband and brothers will be home directly from shooting, and they always come in this way. They’ve been out for snipe in the marshes to-day, so they’ll make a fine mess over my poor carpets. So like you men-folk, isn’t it?”

Question

She rattled on cheerfully about the shooting and the scarcity of birds, and the prospects for duck in the winter. To Framton it was all purely horrible. He made a desperate but only partially successful effort to turn the talk on to a less ghastly topic; he was conscious that his hostess was giving him only a fragment of her attention, and her eyes were constantly straying past him to the open window and the lawn beyond. It was certainly an unfortunate coincidence that he should have paid his visit on this tragic anniversary.

"The Open Window" by H.H. Munro ("Saki")

Question
Use the excerpt below from H.H. Munro’s “The Open Window” to answer the question.

Which of the following is a character trait of Framton, as he appears in this excerpt?

(1 point)
Responses

timid
timid

responsible
responsible

anguished
anguished

gregarious

Answer 1

The correct answer is timid.

In the excerpt, Framton is described as making a "desperate but only partially successful effort to turn the talk on to a less ghastly topic," which suggests he is uncomfortable and possibly hesitant in the social situation. This indicates a trait of timidity.