noon
When the Baron awoke on Saturday he remembered Roma with a good deal of self-reproach , and everything that happened during the following days made him think of her with tenderness . During the morning an aide-de-camp brought him the casket containing the Collar of the Annunziata , and spoke a formal speech . He fingered the jewelled band and golden pendant as he made the answer prescribed by etiquette , but he was thinking of Roma and the joy she might have felt in hailing him cousin of the King . Towards noon he received the telegram which announced the death of his maniac wife , and he set off instantly for his castle in the Alban Hills . He remained long enough to see the body removed to the church , and then returned to Rome . Nazzareno carried to the station the little hand-bag full of despatches with which he had occupied the hour spent in the train . They passed by the tree which had been planted on the first of Roma 's Roman birthdays .