question: How many people are known to be in the house? answer: There are only 3 people in the house paragraph:  Heavy wooden shutters dulled the noise of the boisterous gale outside.  A thick red curtain hung over the door, and a cheery log fire burnt in the stove.  A man and woman sat over it; the man, a tall, repulsive-looking creature, with unkempt hair and matted beard, his age apparently about fifty.  The woman looked seventy or more.  She too had once been tall, but now old age gave her a withered, witch-like appearance, in spite of her great height.  She was dressed in limp, faded garments, with a tattered shawl crossed over her chest, and had a scared, miserable look in her bleared old eyes.  There were a few words of explanation from the man who had come home, and then, in gruff but not unkindly tones, he bade Babette be seated, and told his mother to get some supper speedily.  She spread a coarse cloth on the wooden table, and when all was ready, lifted a large black saucepan from the stove and turned out a smoking, savoury-looking stew.  The youngest son produced a bottle containing the thin acid wine of the country, and another of spirits.  As he set them on the table, Babette noticed that across one of his hands, which were much smaller and whiter than those of his brothers, there ran a dull red scar that looked as if he had had a bad cut there.  Then they all sat down, excepting the old mother, who busied herself in waiting on them. 