"No," said Eleanor venturing to look up.
"Did you not see Mr. Armitage?"
"Mr. Armitage! O he was in the back country—I remember now Mr. Amos said that; and he never returned to Sydney while we were there."
An inarticulate sound came from Mr. Rhys's lips, between indignation and impatience; the strongest expression of either that Eleanor had ever heard from him.
"Then Mr. Armitage had the letters?"
"Certainly! and I am in the utmost surprise at his carelessness. He ought to have left them in somebody else's charge, if he was quitting the place himself. When did you hear from me?"
The flush rose again, not so vividly, to Eleanor's face.
"I heard in England—those letters—you know."
"Those letters I trusted to Mrs. Caxton?"
"Yes."