D. There is a fire burning to heat and light a house, so the story is likely set in the past.
By telling the story about how are they heated and how is the house the author implies that the fire will make you think of past times, where they often share stories by the chimney.
"Without, the night was cold and wet, but in the small parlor of Lakesnam Villa the blinds were drawn and the fire burned brightly.", an excerpt from the exposition in "The Monkey's Paw.", the one piece of information you can infer about the story from this sentence is: D. There is a fire burning to heat and light a house, so the story is likely set in the past.
