Read these lines: "But, alas! this kind heart had but a short time to remain such. The fatal poison of irresponsible power was already in her hands, and soon commenced its infernal work. That cheerful eye, under the influence of slavery, soon became red with rage; that voice, made all of sweet accord, changed to one of harsh and horrid discord." Calling power a "fatal poison" suggests that it

1. A poison is not a blow. It is taken in, and then it acts over time on the person who holds it. 2. The quoted lines match that pattern: the poison was already in her hands and soon commenced its work. 3. The changes listed are inward ones showing outward, a cheerful eye turning to rage and a sweet voice to discord. 4. Slow work from the inside outward is option B. 5. Option D reads the poison as a physical illness, but the harm described is to her temper and her voice, not her body. 6. Option C sets a cure the quoted lines refuse, since the heart had only a short time to remain kind. 7. Option A supplies an intention behind the gift that the quoted lines never mention. _Source: Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845), public domain_