“Hearing a rumor that one of Lafayette Square’s most delightful young women, Emily Beale, was in love with [Clarence] King, Hay asked what he thought of her. ‘To see her walk across a room, you would think someone had tilted up a coffin on end and propelled the corpse spasmodically forward,’ King replied, effectively closing the subject of Miss Beale.”
––The Five of Hearts: An Intimate Portrait of Henry Adams and His Friends, by Patricia O’Toole
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