The following text is from Herman Melville's 1854 novel The Lightning-rod Man.

The stranger still stood in the exact middle of the cottage, where he had first planted himself. His singularity impelled a closer scrutiny, A lean, gloomy figure. Hair dark and lank, mattedly streaked over his brow. His sunken pitfalls of eyes were ringed by indigo halos, and played with an innocuous sort of lightning: the gleam without the bolt. The whole man was dripping. He stood in a puddle on the bare oak floor: his strange walking-stick vertically resting at his side.

Which choice best states the function of the underlined sentence in the overall structure of the text?

Question

Accepted Answer

It sets up the character description presented in the sentences that follow.

Answer

It elaborates on the previous sentence's description of the character.

Answer

It introduces the setting that is described in the sentences that follow.

Answer

It establishes a contrast with the description in the previous sentence.