Consider the word choices the author Charles Dickens uses in this excerpt from his book A Tale of Two Cities. “There was a steaming mist in all the hollows, and it had roamed in its forlornness up the hill, like an evil spirit, seeking rest and finding none. A clammy and intensely cold mist, it made its slow way through the air in ripples that visibly followed and overspread one another, as the waves of an unwholesome sea might do. It was dense enough to shut out everything from the light of the coach-lamps but these its own workings, and a few yards of road; and the reek of the [laboring] horses steamed into it, as if they had made it all.”

How does the phrase like an evil spirit in the first sentence affect the meaning of the rest of the paragraph?

A.
It describes a natural force at work, making the paragraph’s setting more believable.
B.
It introduces a threat to the story, helping explain the paragraph’s urgent action.
C.
It emphasizes an important detail in the setting, revealing the paragraph’s historical authenticity.
D.
It presents the mist as a threatening character, helping establish the paragraph’s overall darkness.