Question

In this excerpt from H. H. Munro’s “The Open Window,” which line reveals the effect that Framton’s conversation has on other characters?

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 doctors agree in ordering me complete rest, an absence of mental excitement, and avoidance of anything in the nature of violent physical exercise,” announced Framton, who laboured under the tolerably widespread delusion that total strangers and chance acquaintances are hungry for the least detail of one’s ailments and infirmities, their cause and cure. “On the matter of diet they are not so much in agreement,” he continued.
“No?” said Mrs. Sappleton, in a voice which only replaced a yawn at the last moment. Then she suddenly brightened into alert attention—but not to what Framton was saying.
“Here they are at last!” she cried. “Just in time for tea, and don’t they look as if they were muddy up to the eyes!”

Answer 1

The line that reveals the effect that Framton's conversation has on the other characters is: "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."

Step-by-step explanation:

This line shows that the person Framton was speaking to was distracted and only partly and halfheartedly paying attention to what he was saying about his own ailments. She was distracted and looking outside. The point that she was not enjoying the conversation is also conveyed in this sentence: ""No?" said Mrs. Sappleton, in a voice which only replaced a yawn at the last moment. " Mrs. Sappleton was trying to pay attention and to be polite but she was bored with the conversation and it was hard to keep herself from yawning.