He wondered in his own mind where he was going.

At length he said, 'Northwards, I believe.

But perhaps I shall never reach there.' 'Haven't you friends?
Aren't you going to them ?' There was again a pause; a cloud came over Philip's countenance.

He said, 'No! I'm not going to my friends.

I don't know that I've got any left.' They interpreted his looks and this speech to mean that he had either lost his friends by death, or offended them by enlisting.
The warden went on, 'I ask, because we've got a cottage vacant in the mead.