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In honor of the recent passing of Elizabeth Taylor-one of the world's most beautiful women-the following is a charming story about how one of the most beautiful gems while in her possession from the book My Love Affair With Jewelry. Taylor's husband Richard Burton gave her one of the largest pearls in the world: La Peregrina. I had just received La Peregrina from New York on a delicate little chain and I was touching it like a talisman and sort of walking back and forth through our room… I was dreaming and glowing and wanting to scream with joy, but Richard was in one of his Welsh moods, and his joy-well, he was a Welshman, so sometimes his joy was perverse and he would become dark. But when I'm happy I shout and scream it and yell it and I wanted to throw myself at him and kiss him all over. But because I knew Richard very well, I had to play it by ear, and I knew that this was not the moment to become too demonstrative. Just the same, there was no one to talk to and no one to show the jewel to, and I was going out of my mind! At one point I reached down to touch La Peregrina and it wasn't there! I glanced over at Richard and thank God he wasn't looking at me, and I went into the bedroom and threw myself on the bed, buried my head into the pillow and screamed.