It would be turned over to him with the rest of his private fortune.
"Never let any woman wear it," she had whispered.

"It brings luck to men but not to women.

Nothing could have affected my luck one way or the other--I was born to have nothing I wanted, but you, dear little boy.
Keep it for your luck and in a safe place, but near you." He had looked back upon this scene as he grew older as the mere expression of a whim of dissolution, but it had made so deep an impression upon him at the time that insensibly the words sank into his plastic mind creating a superstition that refused to yield to reason.

The ruby was Helene's birthstone and she was passionately fond of it.

She had begged and coaxed to wear this jewel, and upon one occasion had stamped her little foot and sulked throughout the evening.