Select the correct inference of the given passage from "the cask of amontillado." "my friend, no. it is not the engagement, but the severe cold with which i perceive you are afflicted. the vaults are insufferably damp. they are encrusted with nitre." the narrator wants fortunato to think he is concerned for his health. the narrator wants to make up another reason for fortunato to avoid the vaults. the narrator doesn’t want to catch a cold in the vaults. the narrator knows the vaults are damp and covered in nitre.

the question concerns exactly this part of the speech:

i am not now thinking of the loss of property involved, immense and serious as that is, but only of the wanton and wholesale destruction of the lives of non-combatants, men, women, and children, engaged in pursuits which have always, even in the darkest periods of modern history, been deemed innocent and legitimate. property can be paid for; the lives of the peaceful and innocent people cannot be.

president wilson talks about the lives of people destroyed by german army. but these people are not americans, they are the local people living in europe. the president mentions the barbarity of germans, considering that he is not targeting the nation, instead it is said about german army. the correct answer is the last one.