Last thing I give your mama before she died

boss: [...] D’you remember the clip I bought your mama? Last thing I give your mama before she died. … I knowed she was dyin’ when I bought her that clip for fifteen thousand dollars mainly to  make her think she was going to get well. … When I pinned it on her on the nightgown she was wearing, taht poor thing started crying. She said, for God’s sake, Boss, what does a dying woman want with such a big diamond? I said to her, honey, look at the price tag on it. What does the price tag say? See them five figures, that one and that five and them three oughts on there? Now, honey, make sense, I told her. If you was dying, if there was any chance of it, would I invest fifteen grand in a diamond clip to pin on the neck of a shroud? Ha, haha. That made the old lady laugh. And she sat up as bright as a little bird in that bed with the diamond clip on, receiving callers all day, and laughing and chatting with them, with that diamond clip on inside and she died before midnight, with that diamond clip on her. And not till the very last minute did she believe that the diamonds wasn’t a proof that she wasn’t dying. [He moves to terrace, takes off robe and starts to put out tuxedo coat.]

heavenly: Did you bury her with it?

boss: Bury her with it? Hell no. I took it back to the jewellery store in the morning.

heavenly: Then it didn’t cost you fifteen grand after all.

boss: Hell, did I care what it cost me? I’m not a small man. I wouldn’t have cared one hoot if it cost me a million … if at any time  had that kind of loot in my pockets. It would have been worth that money to see that one little smile your mama bird give me at noon of the day she was dying.

heavenly: I guess that shows, demonstrates very clearly, that you have got a pretty big heart after all.

boss: Who doubts it then? Who? Who ever? [He laughs]

[act ii, scene i]

This is an example of how objects can change someone’s mood. But is their price directly related to the amount of happiness it provides?