In The Chrysanthemums (1937) by John Steinbeck, the tone of Elisa's discussion with the traveling repairman is B) impatient.
Although the traveling repairman tries to talk with Elisa, she tells him several times that she has no work for him to do but she starts to lose her patience when the man suggests the things he could fix for her. The traveling repairman is never given a name throughout the story but the reader gets to know that he makes a living as a mender: he fixes pots and sharpens scissors and knives. When the man insists the woman to give him a job, she tells him to go away; however, when he begins to talks about the flowers, Elisa starts to feel sympathy for him and ends up finding two pots for him to mend. Finally, he leaves the place after the woman gives him fifty cents and the chrysanthemum shoots.
