Answer:
What does she seem to think is the theme of her aunt's story?
The older girl seems to think the theme of her aunt's story is that only people who are good are saved when they are in danger.
What detail in the aunts story leads her to think so?
According to the narrator, in the story told by the aunt, the people who save the little girl all admire how good she is. Therefore, the niece concludes that it is due to her goodness that the girl is saved.
Because she was so good, she made a lot of friends, and was finally saved from a wild bull by people who admired how good she was.
“Would they have saved her if she hadn’t been good?” demanded the older of the little girls. That was exactly the question the bachelor wanted to ask.
Step-by-step explanation:
In "The Storyteller", by Saki, the aunt is trying to keep her nieces and nephew quiet while on a train ride. Since the aunt thinks they are misbehaving, she decides to tell them a story that will teach them a moral lesson.
In her story, a little girl who is known and admired for being good is saved while in danger. What the aunt is trying to accomplish here is to convey the idea that good people are rewarded by their goodness. However, she chooses a bad example, and is easily cornered by one of her nieces. The girl finds it strange that the people in the story would only save the girl because she is good, and not because it is the right thing to do. As a matter of fact, the aunt's thinking is so flawed that this would make those people bad, since they are choosing whom to save according to their liking.