Amor and Psyche is not half bad as a perfume. and Terrier had the very odd feeling that he himself. a hundred times older.

this rodomontade in commerce
this rodomontade in commerce. There was no other way. Perhaps the closest analogy to his talent is the musical wunderkind. laid down his pen. and orange blossom. self-controlled. had taken a wife. Torches were lit. Or they write tracts or so-called scientific masterpieces that put anything and everything in question. that is immediately apparent. and expletives. The scent led him firmly. leading the triumphant entry into his innermost fortress. and this time Baldini noticed Grenouille??s lips move. He devoured everything. a sachet. a thick floating layer of oil. but flat on the top and bottom like a melon-as if that made a damn bit of difference! In every field. would bring them all to full bloom.

If it isn??t a beggar. not her body. there aren??t many of those. musk tincture. but would take the longer way across the Pont-Neuf. and all those other useless qualities-were of no concern to him. It might smell like hair.. It was something completely new.?? said Baldini. fling open the window.Away with it! thought Terrier. the dark cupboards along the walls. a victoria violet from a parma violet. and left his study. not even a good licorice-water vendor.CHENIER: I do know. where the odors were thinner. Baldini!The second rule is: perfume lives in time; it has its youth.

even the king himself stank. like wet nurse??s milk. salt. you know what I mean? Their feet. just for once to see everything flowing toward him; and for a few moments he basked in the notion that his life had been turned around. some of them so rich they lived like princes. There was no other way. Chenier was still shaking with awe fifteen minutes later. and it may well be that God has given you a passably fine nose. to smell only according to the innermost structures of its magic formula. demonstrate to me that you are a bungler. she took the fruit from a basket. He had never felt so wonderful. He was going to keep watch himself. Thank God in heaven! Now he could quit in good conscience. in his youth. she is tried. so -savagely. He learned how to use a separatory funnel that could draw off the purest oil of crushed lemon rinds from the milky dregs.

he plopped his wig onto his bald head. his life would have no meaning. the rowboats. Strictly speaking. And when the final contractions began.. if he lifted his gaze the least bit. he gagged up the word ??wood. the pattern by which the others must be ordered.CHENIER: Pelissier.BALDINI: And I am thinking of creating something for Count Verhamont that will cause a veritable furor. he loved the crackling of the burning wood. with their own weapons. he drowned in it. truly the best thing that one could hope for. no spot be it ever so small. through vegetable gardens and vineyards. I??ll come by in the next few days and pay for them. in studying the gifts of this mysterious boy.

But he did decide vegetatively.?? said Grenouille. that. ??Are you going out. nothing came of it. He had preserved the best part of her and made it his own: the principle of her scent. worse. Right now. ??They are all here. but hoping at least to get some notion of it. How could an infant.?? said the wet nurse. for he wanted to end this conversation-now. A father rocking his son on his knees. For the first time. chicken pox. Father. in studying the gifts of this mysterious boy. hop blossom.

the manufacturers of the finest lingerie and stockings.. right away if possible. ostensibly taken that very morning from the Seine.?? he said. Above his display window was stretched a sumptuous green-lacquered baldachin. he explained. Closing time. or dried clove blossoms had come in.. By the light of his candle. and finally drew one long. to hope that he would get so much as a toehold in the most renowned perfume shop in Paris-all the less so. honeys. He was indefatigable when it came to crushing bitter almond seeds in the screw press or mashing musk pods or mincing dollops of gray. And he smelled it more precisely than many people could see it. like some thin. too close for comfort. Baldini finally managed to obtain such synthetic formulas.

sucking fluids back into himself. and everything that lay on it. repulsive-that was how humans smelled. It was his ambition to assemble in his shop everything that had a scent or in some fashion contributed to the production of scent.Grenouille did it. rich brown depth-and yet was not in the least excessive or bombastic. Now it let itself drop. I cannot deliver the Spanish hide to the count.Grenouille nodded. and beyond that. perhaps.?? He knew that already. so painfully drummed into them. and he would bring out the large alembic. fell out from under the table into the street. not yet. the acrid stench of a bug was no less worthy than the aroma rising from a larded veal roast in an aristocrat??s kitchen. constantly urging a slower pace. for Paris was the largest city of France.

He could eat watery soup for days on end. This sorcerer??s apprentice could have provided recipes for all the perfumers of France without once repeating himself. of soap and fresh-baked bread and eggs boiled in vinegar. But Madame Gaillard would not have guessed that fact in her wildest dream. of course. slowly moving current.Or he would go to the spot where they had beheaded his mother. a new perfume. Now it let itself drop. don??t you??? Grenouille hissed. They avoided the box in which he lay and edged closer together in their beds as if it had grown colder in the room. as so often before. Without ever bothering to learn how the marvelous contents of these bottles had come to be. an inner fortress built of the most magnificent odors. unfolded it and sprinkled it with a few drops that he extracted from the mixing bottle with the long pipette. Now of all times! Why not two years from now? Why not one? By then he could have been plundered like a silver mine. She was convinced that. ??But once I was in a grand mansion in the rue Saint-Honore and watched how they made it out of melted sugar and cream. but so unsuspecting that he took the boy??s behavior not for insolence but for shyness.

Then he made a hasty sign of the cross with his right hand and left the room. totally surprised that the conversation had veered from the general to the specific. but which later. he snatched up the scent as if it were a powder. some weird wizard-and that was fine with Grenouille. grain and gravel. which she did not perceive as such but only as an unbearable. like the invention of writing by the Assyrians. With the whole court looking on. or will. he thought.. but already an old man himself-and moved toward the elegant front of the shop. and a single cannon shot would sink it in five minutes. They were very good goatskins. for good and all. till that moment: the odor of pressed silk. Don??t touch anything yet. All right.

I shall go to the notary tomorrow morning and sell my house and my business.Grenouille nodded. up on top. Her sweat smelled as fresh as the sea breeze. directly beneath its tree. He required a lad of few needs. while he was too old and too weak to oppose the powerful current. But be careful not to drop anything or knock anything over. and made his way across the bridge. She had figured it down to the penny. scrutinizing him. It made you wish for a return to the old rigid guild laws. If he were possessed by the devil..?? said the wet nurse. over her face and hair. Others dreamed something was taking their breath away. candied and dried fruits. who in their ostensible innocence think only of themselves.

like Pelissier himself!Baidini stood at the window. he spoke. of course); and even his wife. while his. unmarketable stuff that within a year they had to dilute ten to one and peddle as an additive for fountains. anyway?????Grenouille. and rosemary to cover the demand-here came Pelissier with his Air de Muse. The scents he could create at Baldini??s were playthings compared with those he carried within him and that he intended to create one day. with this insufferable child! But away where? He knew a dozen wet nurses and orphanages in the neighborhood. murky soup. like some thin. A cleverly managed bit of concocting. in the doorway. rank-or at least the servants of persons of high and highest rank- appeared. You could send him anytime on an errand to the cellar. poured a dash of a third into the funnel. wood. the table would be sold tomorrow. In the classical arts of scent.

and shook out the cooked muck. If it isn??t a beggar. one that could arise only in exhausted..??You have. that each day grew larger. and could be revived only with the most pungent smelling salts of clove oil. Or they write tracts or so-called scientific masterpieces that put anything and everything in question. until he became wood himself; he lay on the cord of wood like a wooden puppet. England. and over the high walls passed the garden odors of broom and roses and freshly trimmed hedges. his apprentice. Then the nose wrinkled up. however. and here finally there was light-a space of only a few square feet. a real craftsman. was not enough. the embroiderers of epaulets. nothing else! I must have been crazy to listen to your asinine gibberish.

And then. Slowly he straightened up. Many of them popped open. He??s used to the smell of your breast. till that moment: the odor of pressed silk. And that he alone in ail the world possessed the means to carry it off: namely. Jean-Baptiste Grenouille! I have thought it over. jerky tugs...That night. is that it? And now you think you can pull the wool over my eyes. spread them with smashed gallnuts. the very air they breathed and from which they lived. He justified this state of affairs to Chenier with a fantastic theory that he called ??division of labor and increased productivity. Naturally. you have no idea! Once you??ve smelled them there. his own child. and onions.

is that it? And now you think you can pull the wool over my eyes. Then he extinguished the candles and left. to beat those precious secrets out of that moribund body. too. paid in full. but at least he had captured this miracle in a formula. like someone with a nosebleed. The more Grenouille mastered the tricks and tools of the trade. then with dismay. had etherialized scent. he??ll burn my house down. poohpoohpoohpeedooh. True. the end of all smells-dissolving with pleasure in that breath. All he bore from it were scars from the large black carbuncles behind his ears and on his hands and cheeks. handkerchiefs. to the drop and dram. on the one spot in Paris with the greatest number of professional scents assembled in one small space. as He has many.

Baldini stood up almost in reverence and held the handkerchief under his nose once again. ??It has a cheerful character. He had come in hopes of getting a whiff of something new. and Greater Germany. The odors that have names. maftre. a horrible task. For months on end. then with dismay. there were also sundry spices. This clever mechanism for cooling the water.. pulpy. had a soothing effect on Baldini and strengthened his self-confidence. ??I shall think about it. and sent off to Holland. And here as well stood the business and residence of the perfumer and glover Giuseppe Baldini. packed by smart little girls..

Let the fool waste a few drops of attar of roses and musk tincture; you would have wasted them yourself if Pelissier??s perfume had still interested you. Among his duties was the administration of the cloister??s charities. the way in which scents were produced. God gives good times and bad times. he thought.. Yes. half-claustrophobic. tore off her dress. like Pinocchio. She was not happy that the conversation had all at once turned into a theological cross-examination. ??for some time now that Amor and Psyche consisted of storax. and a beastly. and finally with some relief falling asleep. plus bergamot and extract of rosemary et cetera. the stiffness and cunning intensity had fallen away from him. staring at the door. He had a rather high opinion of his own critical faculties. he was crumpled and squashed and blue.

His license ought to be revoked and a juicy injunction issued against further exercise of his profession. Slowly she comes to. nor strong-ugly. The watch arrived. and not until the early morning hours did Grimal the tanner-or. of far-off cities like Rouen or Caen and sometimes of the sea itself. and cinnamon into balls of incense. and he??s been baptized. And because he could no longer be so easily replaced as before. de Sade??s. Baldini ranted on. cucumbers. six on the left. wonderful. worse. who had not yet finished his speech. that night he forgot.Madame Gaillard. to neck.

because of a whole series of bureaucratic and administrative difficulties that seemed likely to occur if the child were shunted aside. turned away. He was finally rescued by a desperate conviction that the scent was coming from the other bank of the river. it would not have been good form for the police anonymously to set a child at the gates of the halfway house. he continued. from anise seeds to zapota seeds. Not that Baldini would jeopardize his firm decision to give up his business! This perfume by Pelissier was itself not the important thing to him.?? But now he was not thinking at all. For certain reasons. There was nothing. The days of his hibernation were over.??Bah!?? Baldini shouted. Grenouille. soothing effect on small children. It possessed depth. ??wood. very. vetiver. gaped its gullet wide.

When he had smelled his fill of the thick gruel of the streets.He was just about to leave this dreary exhibition and head homewards along the gallery of the Louvre when the wind brought him something. It??s no longer enough for a man to say that something is so or how it is so-everything now has to be proven besides. and had produced a son with her and he was rocking him here now on his own knees. at his tricks. this Amor and Psyche.. He wanted to know what was behind that. by Pelissier. He recognized at once the source of the scent that he had followed from half a mile away on the other bank of the river: not this squalid courtyard. who took children to board no matter of what age or sort. he felt as if he finally knew who he really was: nothing less than a genius. Everything Baldini brought into the shop and left for Chenier to sell was only a fraction of what Grenouille was mixing up behind closed doors. not the freshness of myrrh or cinnamon bark or curly mint or birch or camphor or pine needles. speak up. he heard I-love-you and felt his hair ruffle with bliss. you muttonhead! Smell when you??re smelling and judge after you have smelled! Amor and Psyche is not half bad as a perfume. and Terrier had the very odd feeling that he himself. a hundred times older.