Read this sentence from Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment," and choose the word that best describes the narrator's tone in the sentence.

Mr. Gascoigne's mind seemed to run on political topics, but whether relating to the past, present, or future, could not easily be determined, since the same ideas and phrases have been in vogue these fifty years.

A.
condescending
B.
ironic
C.
melancholic
D.
sarcastic