Corona also looked more beautiful than even her husband ever remembered to have seen her; she wore a perfectly simple gown of black satin without the smallest relief of colour, and upon her neck the famous Astrardente necklace of pearls, three strings of even thickness, each jewel exquisitely white and just lighted in its shadow by a delicate pink tinge--such a necklace as an empress might have worn.

In the raven masses of her hair there was not the least ornament, nor did any flower enhance the rich blackness of its silken coils.

It would be impossible to imagine greater simplicity than Corona showed in her dress, but it would be hard to conceive of any woman who possessed by virtue of severe beauty a more indubitable right to dispense with ornament.
The theatre was crowded.

There was a performance of "Norma" for which several celebrated artists had been engaged--an occurrence so rare in Rome, that the theatre was absolutely full.

The Astrardente box was upon the second tier, just where the amphitheatre began to curve.