"Already ?" and then laughed.

He was the only man whom Wogan had seen laugh since he drove into Bologna, and he drew a great breath of hope.
"Then nothing has happened, Whittington?
There is no bad news ?" "There is news so bad, my friend, that you might have jogged here on a mule and still have lost no time.

Your hurry is clean wasted," answered Whittington.
Wogan ran past him up the stairs, and so left the hall and the open doorway clear.

Whittington looked now straight through the doorway, and saw the carriage and the lady on the point of stepping down onto the kerb.

His face assumed a look of extreme surprise.