Odd

It was just four o'clock on a dull grey winter afternoon. The little Stuarts' nursery looked the picture of cosiness and comfort with the blazing fire that threw flickering lights over the bright-coloured pictures on the walls, the warm carpet under foot, and the fair fresh faces of the children gathered there.
Five of them there were, and they were alone, for the old nurse who had brought them all up from their infancy was at present absent from the room.