Answer: B. It produces a contradictory urge to stop reading and to continue.
Explanation: The tone of a sentence or a story is the author's attitude towards the audience, the subject or even the characters of the story. There are many types of tones, for example, negative, positive, happy, sad, angry, etc. In the given excerpt from "The Masque of the Red Death" the tone is suspenseful and fearful, which have the effect on the reader of producing a contradictory urge to stop reading and to continue.
