Question

Read the following passage carefully before choosing your answer.

For twenty years, Mr. Croft had walked the same gravel path to the municipal archives, his eyes fixed on the damp stones, his mind occupied by the cataloging of long-forgotten town charters. The town had grown around him, rising in brick and iron, casting tall shadows over the narrow garden he inherited from his father. On this particular morning, a new clerk, young and smelling of the sea, had left a window open. A breeze, sharp and smelling of salt and distant horizons, swept across Mr. Croft's desk, scattering his index cards and lifting the heavy scent of mildewed parchment. Mr. Croft stood up, his fingers poised in the air as if to catch the stray papers, but he did not move toward them. He walked instead to the open window and looked out at the harbor, where the masts of outward-bound vessels swayed against the grey sky. For a long, suspended minute, his chest rose with a sudden, unaccustomed fullness, and he felt the weight of his coat like an armor he might simply unbuckle and cast aside. But as the wind died, the chill of the afternoon draft crept through his sleeves. He reached out, pulled the heavy sash down until the latch clicked into place, and knelt to retrieve the scattered cards, returning each to its proper alphabetical sequence with slow, deliberate precision.

Which of the following best describes the development of Mr. Croft's character over the course of the passage?