Read the excerpt from a short story. I thanked her again for the cake, and quietly retreated from the porch. A blast of air conditioning assailed me as I reentered our home and closed the summer heat behind me. Placing the cake on the table with the others, I noted its carefully scalloped frosting with mounting sadness. Clutching the doorjamb, I suppressed a sob. The reality of our loss would wait. Which words from the excerpt convey the tone? “thanked” and “retreated” “assailed” and “reentered” “placing” and “scalloped” “clutching” and “suppressed”

She took up a scalpel and slit the monkey's abdomen, making a slow and gentle cut, keeping the blade well away from her gloved fingers. the spleen was puffed up and tough, leathery, like a globe of smoked salami. she did not see any bloody lesions inside this monkey. she had expected that the monkey's interior would be a lake of blood, but no, this monkey looked all right, it had not bled into itself. if the animal had died of ebola, this was not a clear case. she opened up the intestine. there was no blood inside it. the gut looked okay. then she examined the stomach. there she found a ring of bleeding spots at the junction between the stomach and the small intestine. this could be a sign of ebola, but it was not a clear sign. it could also be a sign of simian fever, not ebola. therefore, she could not confirm the presence of ebola virus in this animal based on a visual inspection of the internal organs during necropsy.