" He has shown himself to be someone who is worthy of my gratitude. For you understand, my child”—Colette was again writing to Germaine Patat—“everything I’m not speaking of in this letter.… Distance and reflexion have been working on me, and I am obliged to observe that I’ve been brought to this place by a well-prepared train of events, which horrifies me. I also know that the house I shall return to will be empty. "

― Judith Thurman , Secrets of the Flesh: A Life of Colette