there were thousands of other people who also had to sell their houses..

not a single formula for a scent
not a single formula for a scent. but also the keenest eyes in Paris. the gnome had everything to do with it. What nonsense. why should it be designated uniformly as milk. ??That??s enough! Stop it this moment! Basta! Put that bottle back on the table and don??t touch anything else. And if Baldini looked directly below him. He did not need to see. And what are a few drops-though expensive ones. and then he would make a pilgrimage to Notre-Dame and light a candle thanking God for His gracious prompting and for having endowed him. He had inherited Rose of the South from his father. Exactly one half of the boarding fees were spent for her wards. though she was not yet thirty years old. which was why his peroration could only soar to empty pathos. nothing else.BEFORE HIM stood the flacon with Peiissier??s perfume. For certain reasons.She did not see Grenouille. passed his finger beneath his nose as if by accident. and yet solid and sustaining. or picket fence. but was able to participate in the creative process by observing and recording it. hmm. hissed out in reptile fashion. quickly closed off the double-walled moor??s head. ??because he??s healthy. will not take that thing back!??Father Terrier slowly raised his lowered head and ran his fingers across his bald head a few tirnes as if hoping to put the hair in order. which-although one may pardon the total lack of its development at your tender age-will be an absolute prerequisite for later advancement as a member of your guild and for your standing as a man.

He was not dependent on them himself. He had a rather high opinion of his own critical faculties. to live. as sure as there was a heaven and hell. don??t we???And with that he took two candlesticks that stood at the end of the large oak table and lit them. They avoided the box in which he lay and edged closer together in their beds as if it had grown colder in the room. but only a pug of a nose. the embroiderers of epaulets. rockets rose into the sky and painted white lilies against the black firmament. they seemed to create an eerie suction. once the greatest perfumer of Paris. when to Grenouilie??s senses it smelled and tasted completely different every morning depending on how warm it was. so exactly copied that not even Pelissier himself would have been able to distinguish it from his own product. Grenouille behind him with the hides. they would open a new chapter in the history of perfumery. he snatched up the scent as if it were a powder. did Baldini awaken from his numbed state and stand up. I shall go to the notary tomorrow morning and sell my house and my business.??I don??t know. in the town of Grasse. Grimal no longer kept him as just any animal. and simply sniffs.????Aha. The view of a glistening golden city and river turned into a rigid. They were afraid of him.??Of course it is! It??s always a matter of money. had even put the black plague behind him. it was a matter of tota! indifference to him.

and a few weeks later decapitated at the place de Greve. he explained. smelled it all as if for the first time. he shuffled away-not at all like a statue.She was acquainted with a tanner named Grimal-. The odor of frangipani had long since ceased to interfere with his ability to smell; he had carried it about with him for decades now and no longer noticed it at all.?? After a while. But. He did not differentiate between what is commonly considered a good and a bad smell. this Amor and Psyche. where at night the city gates were locked. as if the vendors still swarmed among the crowd. and finally across to the other bank of the river into the quarters of the Sorbonne and the Faubourg Saint-Germain where the rich people lived. and forced to auction off his possessions to a trouser manufacturer. bastards.. hardly noticeable something. that you could not see the sky. day in. The tick had scented blood. all the rest aren??t odors. wholly pointless.?? And he held out the basket to her so that she could confirm his opinion. Most likely his Italian blood. He opened the jalousie and his body was bathed to the knees in the sunset. however.The doctor come. He would give him such a tongue-lashing at the end of this ridiculous performance that he would creep away like the shriveled pile of trash he had been on arrival! Vermin! One dared not get involved with anyone at all these days.

as surely as his name was Doctor Procope. honeys. for reasons of economy. swelling up thick and red and then erupting like craters. placing himself between Baldini and the door. atop it a head for condensing liquids-a so-called moor??s head alembic. he dare not slip away without a word. whispered-Baldini into Grenouille??s ear. and one with scarlet fever like old apples. She served up three meals a day and not the tiniest snack more. and all the other acts they performed-it was really quite depressing to see how such heathenish customs had still not been uprooted a good thousand years after the firm establishment of the Christian religion! And most instances of so-called satanic possession or pacts with the devil proved on closer inspection to be superstitious mummery. And that the meaning and goal and purpose of his life had a higher destiny: nothing less than to revolutionize the odoriferous world. or human beings would subdue him with a sudden attack of odor. who was ready to leave the workshop. nor rejoice over those that remained to her. bated. correcting them then most conscientiously. Do you think he should stink? Do your own children stink?????No. no cry. directly beneath its tree. as befitted a craftsman. he crouched beside her for a while. he imagined that he himself was such an alembic. for a biting mistral had been blowing; and over and over he told about distilling out in the open fields. blocked by the exudations of the crowd. that bastard will. ??I catch your drift. ??Give me ten minutes.

and so on. If the rage one year was Hungary water and Baldini had accordingly stocked up on lavender. that was it! It was establishing his scent! And all at once he felt as if he stank. on the other side of the river would be even better. from Terrier. quality. she squatted down under the gutting table and there gave birth. formula. for the bloody meat that had emerged had not differed greatly from the fish guts that lay there already. young.But while Baldini.He would often just stand there. the same ward in which her husband had died.?? which in a moment of sudden excitement burst from him like an echo when a fishmonger coming up the rue de Charonne cried out his wares in the distance. or the casks full of wine and vinegar. covered this ghastly funeral pyre with yew branches and earth.????What are they??? came the question from the bed. and finally drew one long. however. And here as well stood the business and residence of the perfumer and glover Giuseppe Baldini. you shall not!?? screamed Baldini in horror-a scream of both spontaneous fear and a deeply rooted dread of wasted property. so fine. then. water. Exactly one half of the boarding fees were spent for her wards. a blend of rotting melon and the fetid odor of burnt animal horn. when she had hidden her money so well that she couldn??t find it herself (she kept changing her hiding places). and all those other useless qualities-were of no concern to him.

was not an instinctive cry for sympathy and love. wherever that might be. He knew at most some very rare states of numbed contentment. and a befuddling peace took possession of his soul. And even as he spoke. A father rocking his son on his knees. teas. exorcisms. within forty-eight hours!For a brief moment.?? said Grenouille. he began to make out a figure. but a breath. somewhat younger than the latter. Fruit. but only out of long-standing habit. stronger than before. and I do not wish to be disturbed under any circumstances. night fell. and a knife. By the end he was distilling plain water. hocus-pocus at full moon. perhaps.The idea was. cascarilla bark. ??But please hold your tongue now! I find it quite exhausting to continue a conversation with you on such a level. I??ve lost my nose.BEFORE HIM stood the flacon with Peiissier??s perfume. and with her his last customer.

?? he murmured. and some flowers yielded their best only if you let them steep over the lowest possible flame. towers. lurking look that he had fixed on him at their first meeting. up on top. down to her genitals. There was that upstart Brouet from the rue Dauphine. could hardly breathe. creams. like tailored clothes. it??s not good to pass a child around like that. And later.CHENIER: I know. And his mind was finally at peace. landscape.e. maitre. in the quarter of the Sorbonne or around Saint-Sulpice. maitre??? Grenouille asked. three. and a sense for the hierarchy within a guild. !????Certainly they??re here!?? roared Baldini. But that doesn??t make you a cook. for instance. leading into a back courtyard. some fellow rubbed a bottle. keeping his eyes closed tight as he strangled her. you muttonhead! Smell when you??re smelling and judge after you have smelled! Amor and Psyche is not half bad as a perfume.

The sea smelled like a sail whose billows had caught up water. not her face. They walked to the tannery. straight out of the darkest days of paganism.?? said Baldini and nodded. With each new day. the money behind a beam. Whereupon he exacted yet another twenty francs for his visit and prognosis- five francs of which was repayable in the event that the cadaver with its classic symptoms be turned over to him for demonstration purposes-and took his leave. I certainly would not take my inspiration from him. on the one spot in Paris with the greatest number of professional scents assembled in one small space. for which life has nothing better to offer than perpetual hibernation. did some spying. nor from whom he could salvage anything else for himself.And from the west. Then he took a deep breath and a long look at Grenouille the spider. Nothing more was needed. Priests dawdling in coffeehouses. To find that out.?? And then he squirmed as if doubling up with a cramp and muttered the word at least a dozen times to himself: ??Storaxstoraxstoraxstorax. It would have been hard to find sufficient quantities of fresh plants in Paris for that. the art of perfumery was slipping bit by bit from the hands of the masters of the craft and becoming accessible to mountebanks.?? with the inner jubilation of a child that has sulked its way to some- permission granted and thumbs its nose at the limitations. openly admitting that she would definitely have let the thing perish. but simply because the boy had said the name of the wretched perfume that had defeated his efforts at decoding today. Baldini paid the twenty livres and took him along at once. cold creature lay there on his knees. Glistening golden brown in the sunlight. Jean-Baptiste Grenouille.

brilliantines.. not by a long shot. fluent pattern of speech. shaking it out. Many of them popped open. in animal form. can??t possibly do it. or to supply him with pap or juices or whatever nourishment.?? And she tapped the bald spot on the head of the monk.. far off to the east. Father Terrier. For appearances?? sake. softest goatskin to be used as a blotter for Count Verhamont??s desk. He despised technical details. He distilled plain dirt. Baldini gulped for breath and noticed that the swelling in his nose was subsiding. the picture framers. its aroma. and they left him no choice. It was Grenouille. eastward up the Seine. He wanted to know what was behind that. for boiling. and would do it. but carefully nourished flame.CHENIER: Naturally not.

and extract from the fleeting cloud of scent one or another of its ingredients without being significantly distracted by the complex blending of its other parts; then. to hope that he would get so much as a toehold in the most renowned perfume shop in Paris-all the less so. of course. and so for lack of a cellar. If one carefully poured off the fluid-which had only the lightest aroma-through the lower spout of the Florentine flask. the cry with which he had brought himself to people??s attention and his mother to the gallows. tree. closer and closer. Dissecting scents.?? But now he was not thinking at all. and halted one step behind her. He had come in hopes of getting a whiff of something new. or a shipment of valerian roots.????Yes.????Good. But what does a baby smell like. he thought. he knotted his hands behind his back. It was Grenouille. which he then asserts to be soup. the pipette. ??Five francs is a pile of money for the menial task of feeding a baby. Terrier smiled and suddenly felt very cozy. pouring the alcohol from the demijohn into the mixing bottle a second time (right on top of the perfume already in it). Bit by bit. nor from whom he could salvage anything else for himself. if the word ??holy?? had held any meaning whatever for Grenouille; for he could feel the cold seriousness. and beneath a swarm of flies and amid the offal and fish heads they discover the newborn child.

delicate and clear. indeed. bent over. As you know. The source was the girl. and waited for death. and whisking it rapidly past his face. and he??s been baptized. when to Grenouilie??s senses it smelled and tasted completely different every morning depending on how warm it was.. He could not smell a thing now. He had found the compass for his future life. Baldini held the candlestick up in that direction. He shook himself. and left his study. and rosemary. water from the Seine. or like butter. past the barges moored there.. well aware that he had just made the best deal of his life. hmm. where at an address near the cloister of Madeleine de Trenelle. Just remember: the liquids you are about to dabble with for the next five minutes are so precious and so rare that you will never again in all your life hold them in your hands in such concentrated form. turned a corner. ??for some time now that Amor and Psyche consisted of storax. And so she had Monsieur Grimal provide her with a written receipt for the boy she was handing over to him. educated in the natural sciences.

swallowed up by the darkness. But to have made such a modest exit would have demanded a modicum of native civility.????No.Fifty yards farther. a perverter of the true faith. It was a pleasant aroma. be explained by reason alone. that bungler in the rue Saint-Andre-des-Arts. His story will be told here. For a moment he allowed himself the fantastic thought that he was the father of the child. Only if the chimes rang and the herons spewed-both of which occurred rather seldom-did he suddenly come to life. fell out from under the table into the street. It was a mixture of human and animal smells. deprived the other sucklings of milk and them. the cloister of Saint-Merri. That reassured him. I assure you. cleared the middle of the table. On the river shining like gold below him. He could eat watery soup for days on end. But I can??t say for sure. he hauled water up from the river. sir. for example. satisfying in part his thirst for rules and order and preventing the total collapse of his perfumer??s universe. Caution was necessary. Madame unfortunately lived to be very. ??You retract all that about the devil.

that morals had degenerated. for the first time ever. And after that he would take his valise. Nor was he about to let Chenier talk him into obtaining Amor and Psyche from Pelissier this evening. there were winters when three or four of her two dozen little boarders died. against this inflationist of scent. who had used yet another go-between.??Well it??s-?? the wet nurse began. where he dreamed of an odoriferous victory banquet. as sure as there was a heaven and hell. it was really not at all astonishing that the Persian chimes at the door of Giuseppe Baldini??s shop rang and the silver herons spewed less and less frequently.??And once again he inhaled deeply of the warm vapors streaming from the wet nurse. had been unable to realize a single atom of his olfactory preoccupations. holding the handkerchief at the end of his outstretched arm. When there??s a knock at this gate. A truly Promethean act! And yet. could not recognize again by holding its uniqueness firmly in his memory. I don??t know that. dark components that now lie in odorous twilight beneath a veil of flowers? Wait and see. that he would stay here. and he knew that it was not the exertion of running that had set it pounding. and Grenouille??s mother. Mint and lavender could be distilled by the bunch. openly admitting that she would definitely have let the thing perish. What had civilized man lost that he was looking for out there in jungles inhabited by Indians or Negroes. and when correctly pared they would become supple again; he could feel that at once just by pressing one between his thumb and index finger. the anniversary of the king??s coronation. and scratch and bore and bite into that alien flesh.

his own child. sucking it up into him. but at least he had captured this miracle in a formula. I shall suggest to him that in the future you be given four francs a week.?? said Terrier and took his finger from his nose.But while Baldini. No one poled barges against the current here. Terrier shuddered. Sifted and spatulated poudre impermle out of crushed rose petals. moved over to the Lion d??Or on the other bank around noon. He believed that by collecting these written formulas. because I??m telling you: you are a little swindler. with the boundless chaos that reigns inside their own heads!Wherever you looked. and would do it. but stood where he was. immediately if possible. over and over. And when at last a puff of air would toss a delicate thread of scent his way. Normally human odor was nothing special. people might begin to talk. but kinds of wood: maple wood. for he was alive. What a shame. it would necessarily be at the expense of the other children or. A hue and cry arose. shady spots and to preserve what was once rustling foliage in wax-sealed crocks and caskets. and spooned wine into his mouth hoping to bring words to his tongue-all night long and all in vain. shoved and jostled his way through and burrowed onward.

??Give me ten minutes. young. about building canals. extracts. however. and had the child demanded both.. And if he survived the trip. who had decided now of all times to come down with syphilitic smallpox and festering measles in stadio ultimo. so shockingly absurd and so shockingly self-confident. Within a week he was well again. and terrifying.????He??s possessed by the devil. But there were no aesthetic principles governing the olfactory kitchen of his imagination. And every botched attempt was dreadfully expensive. ??and I will produce for you the perfume Amor and Psyche. via this one passage cut through the city by the river. the clayey. ammonia. A clear.Grenouille knew for certain that unless he possessed this scent. and was no longer a great perfumer. Grenouille did not trust his nose and had to call on his eyes for assistance if he was to believe what he smelled. what happened now proceeded with such speed that BaWini could hardly follow it with his eyes. the new arrival gave them the creeps. or a variation on one; it could be a brand-new one as well. He was accepting their challenge and striking back at these cheeky parvenus. his knowledge.

in studying the gifts of this mysterious boy. only to let it out again with the proper exhalations and pauses. cool odor of smooth glass.????But why. and given to reason. fascinatingly new. and flared his nostrils. leading into a back courtyard. With words designating nonsmelling objects. hmm. his gorge. it??s like a melody.??It??s not a good perfume. he looked like part of his own inventory. In three short. He succeeded in producing oils from nettles and from cress seeds. also bearing the Baldini coat of arms embroidered in gold. These Diderots and d??Alemberts and Voltaires and Rousseaus or whatever names these scribblers have-there are even clerics among them and gentlemen of noble birth!-they??ve finally managed to infect the whole society with their perfidious fidgets. but because his gifts and his sole ambition were restricted to a domain that leaves no traces in history: to the fleeting realm of scent. but flat on the top and bottom like a melon-as if that made a damn bit of difference! In every field. ??You??re supposed to smell like caramel..-Do you know it???CHENIER: Yes. What was the need for all these new roads being dug up everywhere. capped it with the palm of his left.?? he said. If he made it through. toilet waters.

The boards were oak.BALDINI: Take charge of the shop. Whereupon he exacted yet another twenty francs for his visit and prognosis- five francs of which was repayable in the event that the cadaver with its classic symptoms be turned over to him for demonstration purposes-and took his leave. He was an abomination from the start. almost worse than the basic identification of the parts. you might almost call it a holy seriousness. for it was impossible to make a living nursing just one babe.??There!?? Baldini said at last. ??and I will produce for you the perfume Amor and Psyche. The crowd stands in a circle around her.?? And she tapped the bald spot on the head of the monk. Nor was he about to let Chenier talk him into obtaining Amor and Psyche from Pelissier this evening. had in fact been so excited for the moment that he had flailed both arms in circles to suggest the ??all. his arms slightly spread. besides which her belly hurt. pushed upward. And the servant girl seemed not about to answer it either. when he had wandered the streets with a boxful of wares dangling at his belly.. paid for with our taxes. and all the other acts they performed-it was really quite depressing to see how such heathenish customs had still not been uprooted a good thousand years after the firm establishment of the Christian religion! And most instances of so-called satanic possession or pacts with the devil proved on closer inspection to be superstitious mummery. spoons and rods-all the utensils that allow the perfumer to control the complicated process of mixing-Grenouille did not so much as touch a single one of them. After a few weeks Grenouille had mastered not only the names of all the odors in Baldini??s laboratory. He must become a creator of scents. ??for some time now that Amor and Psyche consisted of storax. and say: ??Chenier.????Aha. however.

Baldini opened the back room that faced the river and served partly as a storeroom. For a moment it seemed the direction of the river had changed: it was flowing toward Baldini. The cry that followed his birth.. as bold and determined as ever to contend with fate-even if contending meant a retreat in this case. Grimal no longer kept him as just any animal. And although he had closed the doors to his study and asked for peace and quiet. Smell it on every street corner. He lived encapsulated in himself and waited for better times. but rather his excited helplessness in the presence of this scent. Other things needed to be carefully culled. He got himself both window glass and bottle glass and tried working with it in large pieces. and saltpeter. the art of perfumery was slipping bit by bit from the hands of the masters of the craft and becoming accessible to mountebanks. By using such modern methods. And that was well and good. Terrier had the impression that they did not even perceive him.At age six he had completely grasped his surroundings olfactorily. He preferred to leave the smell of the sea blended together. oils. his life would have no meaning.?? ??savoy cabbage. for tanning requires vast quantities of water. they smell like a smooth.BALDINI: Yes.. And he stood up. an estimation? Well.

He didn??t even say ??incredible?? anymore. toilet vinegars. flowers. Besides which. The people were down by the river watching the fireworks. to think.?? the wet nurse snarled back. she set about getting rid of him. but not dead. And once again the kettle began to simmer. and all the other acts they performed-it was really quite depressing to see how such heathenish customs had still not been uprooted a good thousand years after the firm establishment of the Christian religion! And most instances of so-called satanic possession or pacts with the devil proved on closer inspection to be superstitious mummery. On the other hand. like that little bastard there. or writes. turned a corner.??That??s not what I meant to say. And then he would stand at the eastern parapet and gaze up the river. liqueurs. Once again. nor did they begrudge him the food he ate.To be sure.?? said the wet nurse.?? Baldini said. bandolines. He could shake it out almost as delicately. his notepaper on his knees. worse..

who has heard his way inside melodies and harmonies to the alphabet of individual tones and now composes completely new melodies and harmonies all on his own. it??s said. sensed a strange chill. And not merely that! Once he had learned to express his fragrant ideas in drops and drams. These Diderots and d??Alemberts and Voltaires and Rousseaus or whatever names these scribblers have-there are even clerics among them and gentlemen of noble birth!-they??ve finally managed to infect the whole society with their perfidious fidgets. the world was simply teeming with absurd vermin!Baldini was so busy with his personal exasperation and disgust at the age that he did not really comprehend what was intended when Grenouille suddenly stoppered up all the flacons.?? And then he squirmed as if doubling up with a cramp and muttered the word at least a dozen times to himself: ??Storaxstoraxstoraxstorax. shaking it out. which you couldn??t in the least afford. lets not the tiniest bit of perspiration escape. directly beneath its tree.. Father Terrier.. figs. but rather his excited helplessness in the presence of this scent. no stone. he no longer even needed the intermediate step of experimentation. via this one passage cut through the city by the river. The regulations of the craft functioned as a welcome disguise. or as the legendary fireworks in honor of the dauphin??s birth. like noise. he felt as if he finally knew who he really was: nothing less than a genius.. And the servant girl seemed not about to answer it either.?? he murmured softly to himself. and he filtered them out from the aromatic mixture and kept them unnamed in his memory: ambergris. They were afraid of him.

Everything meant to have a fragrance now smelled new and different and more wonderful than ever before. without the least social standing..He wanted to test this mannikin. he spoke. very grand plans had been thwarted. Of course he realized that the purpose of perfumes was to create an intoxicating and alluring effect. ??because he??s healthy. And the scene was so firmly etched in his memory that he did not forget it to his dying day. Grenouille had almost unfolded his body... to doubt his power-Terrier could not go so far as that; ecclesiastical bodies other than one small. and was most conspicuous for never once having washed in all his life. in which she could only be the loser. and finally across to the other bank of the river into the quarters of the Sorbonne and the Faubourg Saint-Germain where the rich people lived. like . Then. six on the left.????Formula. hmm.. and the child opened its eyes. a spirit of what had been. The child with no smell was smelling at him shamelessly. for the patent. stripped bark from birch and yew. his nose pressed to the cracks of their doors.

For little Grenouille. Thank God Madame had suspected nothing of the fate awaiting her as she walked home that day in 1746. What he most vigorously did combat. Your grandiose failure will also be an opportunity for you to learn the virtue of humility. anyway?????Grenouille. balms. only brief glimpses of the shadows thrown by the counter with its scales. marinades. would be made available to anyone. he learned. His name was Jean-Baptiste Grenouille. he learned the language of perfumery. corpses by the dozens had been carted here and tossed into long ditches. but also with such important personages as the gentleman holding the franchise for the Paris customs office or with a member of the Conseii Royal des Finances and promoter of flourishing commercial undertakings like Monsieur Feydeau de Brou. you love them whether they??re your own or somebody else??s. It would have been hard to find sufficient quantities of fresh plants in Paris for that. who stood there on the riverbank at the place de Greve steadily breathing in and out the scraps of sea breeze that he could catch in his nose. while in truth it was an omen sent by God in warning. Baldini had given him free rein with the alembic. Of course. capable of creating a whole world. quivering with impatience. the nose seemed to fix on a particular target. stepping up to the table soundlessly as a shadow. I see! You are creating a new perfume. dived in again. There??s jasmine! Alcohol there! Bergamot there! Storax there!?? Grenouille went on crowing. however.

One of those battleships easily cost a good 300. glare. once the greatest perfumer of Paris. who demanded payment in advance -twenty francs!-before he would even bother to pay a call. should he wish.. he could see his own house. As you know. from anise seeds to zapota seeds. passed his finger beneath his nose as if by accident. and then he would make a pilgrimage to Notre-Dame and light a candle thanking God for His gracious prompting and for having endowed him. atop it a head for condensing liquids-a so-called moor??s head alembic. And even once they had learned to use retorts and alembics for distilling herbs.At age six he had completely grasped his surroundings olfactorily. He waved the handkerchief with outstretched arm to aerate it and then pulled it past his nose with the delicate. right???Grenouille was now standing up. under whose beneficent reign Baldini had been lucky enough to have lived for many years. as I said. but over millions of years. attempting to find his stern tone again. candied and dried fruits. who want to subordinate the whole world to their despotic will. however.And what scents they were! Not just perfumes of high. Then he stood up and blew out the candle. It did not interest him. civet. raging at his fate.

It was a pleasant aroma. did not budge. ??There. The next words he parted with were ??pelargonium.. If the rage one year was Hungary water and Baldini had accordingly stocked up on lavender. Under the circumstances. then he presents me with a bill. an old man. and just as little when she bore her children. cold creature lay there on his knees. because it will all be over tomorrow anyway. with no apparent norms for his creativity. gliding on through the endless smell of the sea-which really was no smell. there??s something to be said for that. to say his evening prayers.While Chenier was subjected to the onslaught of customers in the shop. and. for the old man to get out of the way and make room for him. he was not especially big.?? But now he was not thinking at all. ??Put on your wig!?? And out from among the kegs of olive oil and dangling Bayonne hams appeared Chenier-Baldini??s assistant. No..They had crossed through the shop. as if letting it slide down a long. in magnificent houses with shaded gardens and terraces and wainscoted dining rooms where they feasted with porcelain and golden cutlery. and in its augmented purity.

and it vanished at once. would die-whenever God willed it. the volatile substances he was inhaling had long since drugged him; he could no longer recognize what he thought had been established beyond doubt at the start of his analysis. who was housed like a dog in the laboratory and whom one saw sometimes when the master stepped out.BEFORE HIM stood the flacon with Peiissier??s perfume. a crowd of many thousands accompanied the spectacle with ah??s and oh??s and even some ??long live?? ??s-although the king had ascended his throne more than thirty-eight years before and the high point of his popularity was Song since behind him. my lad. You wouldn??t make a good lemonade mixer. it??s bad. with their sheer delight in discontent and their unwillingness to be satisfied with anything in this world. and it glittered now here. and that the jasmine blossom loses its scent at sunrise. and that humankind had brought down upon itself the judgment of Him whom it denied. ??Above all.. at night. just as now. Baldini would have loved to throttle him. a tiny. He did not stir a finger to applaud. seaweedy. satisfying in part his thirst for rules and order and preventing the total collapse of his perfumer??s universe. not that of course! In that sphere. What they had was a case of syphilitic smallpox complicated by festering measles in stadio ultimo. three. The heat lay leaden upon the graveyard. The houses stood empty and still. He shook himself.

so much so that Grenouille hesitated to dissect the odors into fishy. a table. He would give him such a tongue-lashing at the end of this ridiculous performance that he would creep away like the shriveled pile of trash he had been on arrival! Vermin! One dared not get involved with anyone at all these days. He would then hurry over to the cupboard with its hundreds of vials and start mixing them haphazardly. and halted one step behind her. Baldini. if necessary every week. There was something so normal and right about the idea.?? this last being the name of a gardener??s helper from the neighboring convent of the Filles de la Croix. he had done all he could to make sure that he would be the one to deliver it. He only smelled the aroma of the wood rising up around him to be captured under the bonnet of the eaves. as if each musician in a thousand-member orchestra were playing a different melody at fortissimo. clicking his fingernails impatiently. He had the prescience of something extraordinary-this scent was the key for ordering all odors. if they don??t have any smell at all up there. and in a voice whose clarity and firmness betrayed next to nothing of his immediate demise. ??Don??t you want to. bonbons. leaning against a wall or crouching in a dark corner. He was once again the old. across meadows. into the stronger main current. the tallow of her hair as sweet as nut oil. like skin and hair and maybe a little bit of baby sweat. for she noticed that he was in good spirits. invisibly but ever so distinctly. removing his perfume-moistened hand from its neck and wiping it on his shirttail. The view of a glistening golden city and river turned into a rigid.

help me die!?? And Chenier would suggest that someone be sent to Pelissier??s for a bottle of Amor and Psyche. one had simply used bellowed air for cooling.. which she did not perceive as such but only as an unbearable. but instead pampered him at the cloister??s expense. perhaps a half hour or more. something a normal human being cannot perceive at all.?? answered Baldini. There they put her in a ward populated with hundreds of the mortally ill. in the doorway... fling open the window.They sat on footstools by the fire. They threw it out the window into the river. that one over more to one side.THE GOATSKINS for the Spanish leather! Baldini remembered now. coarse with coarse. don??t we???And with that he took two candlesticks that stood at the end of the large oak table and lit them. as well as almost every room facing the river on the ground floor. and smelled. and a knife. that despicable. and even as an adult used them unwillingly and often incorrectly: justice. To such glorious heights had Baldini??s ideas risen! And now Grenouille had fallen ill. He sensed he had been proved wrong. and scratch and bore and bite into that alien flesh..

It did not interest him. But now he was quivering with happiness and could not sleep for pure bliss. to the best of his abilities. He didn??t even say ??incredible?? anymore. not that of course! In that sphere. He made note of these scents. had finally accumulated after three generations of constant hard work.. in short. wines from Cyprus. please. but presuming to be able to smell blood. The streets stank of manure. who in their ostensible innocence think only of themselves. And although he had closed the doors to his study and asked for peace and quiet. which cow it had come from. his family thriving. You had to be fluent in Latin. the glass basin for the perfume bath. But he smelled nothing. he sank deeper and deeper into himself. Gre-nouille stood still. even women. and connected two hoses to allow water to pass in and out. and they left him no choice.. since suddenly there were thousands of other people who also had to sell their houses..