Crisis

"...catching the midday sunshine that was starry with floating dust... a bunch of purple orchids stood in the thick little troughlike vase in front of her... the light from it was reflected onto her face, disturbing the grey-green colour of her eyes, which he used to compare to willow leaves.

A springtime upsurge of new leaves, unpruned shoots and long rose suckers, flushed by the apoplectic sap, brought the neglected groups of shrubs closer... on the poplars the gold and bronze of the new leaves still wrongfully occupied the place of the green. A crabapple tree, its white petals lined with bright red, had defeated the somewhat sickly Judas tree, and the syringas, in their attempt to escape the destructive shade of the shiny aucubas, extended their slender branches and their butter-white stars through the broad grasping leaves, which were mottled like snakes."

Colette: Duo