When vaudeville performer, George Burns, finally proposed to his show partner Gracie, she laughed so that he commented, "If I could have gotten that kind of laughter from an audience, I would have been successful years earlier.  I even bought a ring.  It sold for $35 but I managed to get it for $20.  It was a very special ring--the metal band actually changed colors as it aged in my pocket."

Gracie turned George down saying that she wanted security when she married and besides, she was in love with another performer Benny Ryan.  Time went on and circumstances changed.

The story of Gracie and George's courtship tomorrow. 
[Gracie wore that $20 ring for the rest of her life, until the day she died.]

~ The 50 Most Romantic Things Ever Done, Dini Von Mueffling, Doubleday, 1997.