Read the following excerpt from Mark Twain's Life on the Mississippi:
Once a day a cheap, gaudy packet arrived upward from St. Louis, and another downward from Keokuk. Before these events, the day was glorious with expectancy; after them, the day was a dead and empty thing.
Which comedic technique does this excerpt best illustrate?
 		A.	Sarcasm
 		B.	Hyperbole
 		C.	Understatement
 		D.	Irony