Isabella Stewart Gardner Collected Men And Scandals Like She Collected Art

“Henry James, a member of her coterie, once remarked that Isabella ‘is not a woman, she is a locomotive – with a Pullman car attached.’ … She obsessively saved newspaper clippings of her exploits and once remarked, in response to gossip about her, ‘Don’t spoil a good story by telling the truth.'” (Is that why she burned all her letters?)