Marilla, Anne’s adoptive mother, has an amethyst brooch that she wears to church every Sunday.  When Anne (age 11) first sees it, she proclaims:

“Oh, Marilla, it’s a perfectly elegant brooch.  I don’t know how you can pay attention to the sermon or the prayers when you have it on.  I couldn’t, I know.  I think amethysts are just sweet.  They are what I used to think diamonds were like.  Long ago, before I had ever seen a diamond, I read about them and I tried to imagine what they would be like.  I thought they would be lovely glimmering purple stones.  When I saw a real diamond in a lady’s ring one day I was so disappointed I cried.”    L.M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables, Chapter XIII.

Later, when Anne and Gilbert Blythe were engaged, “Anne’s engagement ring was a circlet of pearls.  She had refused to wear a diamond.”  She told Gilbert: “‘I’ve never really liked diamonds since I found out they weren’t the lovely purple I had dreamed.  They will always suggest my old disappointment.’”    L.M. Montgomery, Anne’s House of Dreams, Chapter III.