"Aunt Serena's tenants—farmers—I do not know what to call them. They might be servants, but they are not that exactly."
"Do you mean that there is no other person in the house?"
"No other person."
Mr. Southwode began to go forward again, slowly, looking at everything as he went.
"What do you hear from your aunt?"
"Nothing. O yes, I have had one scrap of a note from her; some time ago; but it told me nothing:"
"Have you written to her?"
"Over and over; till I was tired."
"Have you written to no one else?"
"Why of course! I wrote to Mrs. Mowbray, again and again; and to one or two of the girls; but I never got an answer. The whole world has seemed dead, and been dead, for me."