_La Retraite Sentimentale_, appearing in 1907 after Colette’s divorce from Willy, carries Claudine’s story to its conclusion. At the outset Renaud is in a Swiss sanitorium, exhausted by the hectic pace at which he has lived, and Claudine is with the now-divorced Annie on the latter’s Burgundian estate, in order to spare Renaud the jealous concern her life alone in Paris might occasion. The potential attraction between Annie and herself is dormant, and Claudine, wretchedly lonely without her husband, amuses herself by drawing from her companion a full account of her _Wanderjahr_. She learns that Annie has run the gamut of sexual experiment with men in search of her romantic ideal, but has gained nothing beyond momentary appeasement. More unwilling than ever to risk a further barren experience with Annie, Claudine yields to a fantastic impulse. Her woman-shy stepson, Marcel, arrives for a visit just as Annie feels impelled to set out on another sexual quest, and Claudine throws the two together in the hope that each may solve the other’s problem. The tragi-farcical outcome suggests that this episode may have been plotted during Colette’s collaboration with Willy, for it echoes the most cynical note of the earlier volumes. The concluding portion of _La Retraite Sentimentale_ shows Claudine, now thirty and widowed, once more entrenched in her beloved country house in Montigny. Her father and the old servant have died, and she is alone with her cherished dogs and cats, still faithful in spirit to Renaud, and filled with tolerant pity for the restless Parisians (Annie among them) who often motor down to see her. This final volume has no place in a study of female variance save for its picture of Claudine’s resolute refusal in maturity to become involved with Annie.