Read the sentence relating to Roger Chillingworth from Chapter 4 of The Scarlet Letter.“Never, sayest thou?” rejoined he with a smile of dark and self-relying intelligence.What trait of Roger Chillingworth does Hawthorne develop in this sentence?

The words “dark” and “self-relying intelligence” give Chillingworth’s smile a threatening, calculating tone. Hawthorne develops the idea that Chillingworth has sinister motivations, rather than pure intentions or carelessness. The correct choice is “Chillingworth’s sinister motivations.”

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