“Do I?”

“It sounds to me so. Were you one of many children?” He shook his head.

“An only child?”

“No there was another. Dead long ago.”

“Father or mother alive?”

“Dead.”⁠—

“And the rest of your relations?”

“Dead⁠—if I ever had any living. I never heard of any.”

At this point of the dialogue Bella came in with a light step. She paused at the door a moment, hesitating whether to remain or retire; perplexed by finding that she was not observed.