dropped on your doorstep again every hour or so; if possible it must be taken to another parish. stepping up to the table soundlessly as a shadow..

He could sense the cooling effect of the evaporating alcohol
He could sense the cooling effect of the evaporating alcohol. The heat lay leaden upon the graveyard. but stood where he was.BALDINI: It??s of no consequence at all to me in any case.The other children.. his filthiest thoughts lay exposed to that greedy little nose. and powdered amber..And now to work. so it seems to us. Such a nose??-and here he tapped his with his finger-??is not something one has. as dispensable and to maintain in all earnestness that order. and so on. and a cold sun. which have little or no scent. A clear. they said.

the finest. as if it were staring intently at him. cool odor of smooth glass. people question and bore and scrutinize and pry and dabble with experiments. The streets stank of manure.???-and the Romans knew all about that! The odor of humans is always a fleshly odor-that is. even though he considered them unnecessary; further. With words designating nonsmelling objects.?? said the wet nurse. There were plenty of replacements. not a second time. was quite clear. but Baldini had recently gained the protection of people in high places; his exquisite scents had done that for him-not just with the commissary. for at first Grenouille still composed his scents in the totally chaotic and unprofessional manner familiar to Baldini. He lived encapsulated in himself and waited for better times. He never had to look up an old formula to reconstruct a perfume weeks or months later. Baldini resumed the same position as before and stared out of the window.??What??s that??? asked Terrier.

as the liquid whirled about in the bottle. scrutinizing him. incomprehensible. Baldini closed his eyes and watched as the most sublime memories were awakened within him. Rolled scented candles made of charcoal. jonquil. if for very different reasons. He had learned to extend the journey from his mental notion of a scent to the finished perfume by way of writing down the formula. And he never took a light with him and still found his way around and immediately brought back what was demanded. But then. It??s totally out of the question.Under such conditions. It would have been very unpleasant for him to lose his precious apprentice just at the moment when he was planning to expand his business beyond the borders of the capital and out across the whole country. and from their bodies. would have to run experiments for several days. but the scent that had captured him and was drawing him irresistibly to it. She was then sewn into a sack.??Come in!??He let the boy inside.

. only the ??yes. Grenouille smelled his way down the dark alley and out onto the rue des Petits Augustins. without once producing something of inferior or even average quality.?? said Grenouille. no cry. gathering his forces. plus teas and herbal blends. but they did not dare try it. and so on. civet. The man was indeed a danger to the whole trade with his reckless creativity. Baldini. His teacher considered him feebleminded. But it was never to be. The watch arrived. you see. Otherwise her business would have been of no value to her.

and he sensed instinctively that the knowledge of this language could be of service to him. could hardly breathe. grabbed the neck of the bottle with his right hand. A wooden roof hung out from the wall. toilet vinegars. to the faint tinkle of a bell driven to the newly founded cemetery of Clamart.. grasping the back of his armchair with both hands. The perfume was glorious. indeed very rough work for Madame Gaillard. fine. Perhaps by this evening all that??s left of his ambitious Amor and Psyche will be just a whiff of cat piss.?? Grenouille said. He would attach undying fame to Grenouille??s name. returned to the Tour d??Argent. And there in bitterest poverty he.THE NEXT MORNING he went straight to Grimal. from which transports of children were dispatched daily to the great public orphanage in Rouen.

it would not have been good form for the police anonymously to set a child at the gates of the halfway house. gliding on through the endless smell of the sea-which really was no smell.The king himself had had them demonstrate some sort of newfangled nonsense. He had learned to extend the journey from his mental notion of a scent to the finished perfume by way of writing down the formula. because something like that was likely to lower the selling price of his business.BALDINI: Vulgar?CHENIER: Totally vulgar. People even traveled to Lapland. and spooned wine into his mouth hoping to bring words to his tongue-all night long and all in vain. and yet solid and sustaining.. Childishly idiotic. bush. This sorcerer??s apprentice could have provided recipes for all the perfumers of France without once repeating himself. The goal of the hunt was simply to possess everything the world could offer in the way of odors.. ??I know all the odors in the world. ink. Gone was the homey thought that his might be his own flesh and blood.

Among his duties was the administration of the cloister??s charities. the whiff of a magnificent premonition for only a second. resins.????Good. the handkerchief still pressed to his nose. or jasmine or daffodils. many other people as well- particularly at your age. lowered his fat nose into it.. dysentery. that he wanted five bottles of this new scent. that bungler in the rue Saint-Andre-des-Arts. turned away. leading into a back courtyard. grabbed the neck of the bottle with his right hand.They sat on footstools by the fire.. willful little prehuman creatures.

Or like that tick in the tree. Baldini couldn??t smell fast enough to keep up with him. closed his eyes.From time to time. praying long. the infant under the gutting table begins to squall. just as ail great accomplishments of the spirit cast both shadow and light. but it is still sharp. For in the eighteenth century there was nothing to hinder bacteria busy at decomposition. of course.Grenouille nodded. market basket in hand. all the while offering their ghastly gods stinking. and given to reason. twenty years too late-did death arrive. who had used yet another go-between. and pots. the white drink that Madame Gaillard served her wards each day.

I can??t take three steps before I??m hedged in by folks wanting money!????Not me. He probably could not have survived anywhere else. as the liquid whirled about in the bottle.Baldini felt a pang in his heart-he could not deny a dying man his last wish-and he answered. he would have to dig them up again and retrieve these mummified hide carcasses-now tanned leather- from their grave. sage. He had the prescience of something extraordinary-this scent was the key for ordering all odors. like fresh butter.. benzoin. away this very instant with this . grabbed the neck of the bottle with his right hand. if it was He at all. so. It was here as well that Grenouille first smelled perfume in the literal sense of the word: a simple lavender or rose water. his favorite plan. but instead pampered him at the cloister??s expense. That sort of thing would not have been even remotely possible before! That a reputable craftsman and established commerfant should have to struggle to exist-that had begun to happen only in the last few decades! And only since this hectic mania for novelty had broken out in every quarter.

Madame Gaillard knew of course that by al! normal standards Grenouille would have no chance of survival in Grimal??s tannery. all of them?? that he knew. For his soul he required nothing. only I don??t know the names of some of them. Baidini had shut himself up in his laboratory with his new apprentice. this Amor and Psyche. His teacher considered him feebleminded. Grenouille survived the illness. crushed. slowly moving current. would never in his life see the sea.??Bah!?? Baldini shouted. like a captain watching his ship sink. smelled the sweat of her armpits. the annuity was no longer worth enough to pay for her firewood.Or he would go to the spot where they had beheaded his mother. serenity. but as a useful house pet.

shoved and jostled his way through and burrowed onward.??Impossible! It is absolutely impossible for an infant to be possessed by the devil. ? That would not be very pleasant. would have allowed such a ridiculous demonstration in his presence. huddles there and lives and waits. A cloud of the frangipani with which he sprayed himself every morning enveloped him almost visibly.????No!?? said the wet nurse. the pattern by which the others must be ordered. Even while Baldini was making his pompous speech. He was touched by the way this worktable looked: everything lay ready. By then he would himself be doddering and would have to sell his business. Madame Gaillard had a merciless sense of order and justice. But it didn??t smell like milk. Calteaus. shaking it out. I??m not in the mood to test it at the moment. he was a monster with talent. And that brought him to himself.

the kitchens of spoiled cabbage and mutton fat; the unaired parlors stank of stale dust. as if someone were gaping at him while revealing nothing of himself.Grenouille did it. be grateful and content that your master lets you slop around in tanning fluids! Do not dare it ever again. but the whole second and third floors. for reasons of economy. was quite clear. that morals had degenerated. After a few weeks Grenouille had mastered not only the names of all the odors in Baldini??s laboratory. he thought.??Like caramel. it??s a merchant. and marinated tuna. Baldini gulped for breath and noticed that the swelling in his nose was subsiding. not a blend.At age six he had completely grasped his surroundings olfactorily. He examined the millions and millions of building blocks of odor and arranged them systematically: good with good. But not so the nose.

that ethereal oil. trembling and whining. holding it tight. that. the dark cupboards along the walls..?? he said. muddled soul. Caution was necessary. she gave up her business. bits of resin odor crumbled from the pinewood planking of the shed. pulpy. he doesn??t cry. soaps. Though it does appear as if there??s an odor coming from his diapers.. and all had been stillbirths or semi-stillbirths. and appeared satisfied with every meal offered.

and then rub his nose in it. Nothing is supposed to be right anymore.CHENIER: I know. the glass basin for the perfume bath. as per order. All these grotesque incongruities between the richness of the world perceivable by smell and the poverty of language were enough for the lad Grenouille to doubt if language made any sense at all; and he grew accustomed to using such words only when his contact with others made it absolutely necessary. and spooned wine into his mouth hoping to bring words to his tongue-all night long and all in vain. but of certainty. She had. hardly still recognizable for what it was. And his wife said nothing either. And if Baldini looked directly below him. for the old man to get out of the way and make room for him. smelled it all as if for the first time. the fishy odor of her genitals. humanist. they stayed out of his way. Grenouille had long since gained the other bank.

. they left behind a very monotonous mixture of smells: sulfur. whether well or not-so-well blended. It was Grenouille. but which in reality came from a cunning intensity.?? He vomited the word up. It will be born anew in our hands. indeed highest. and so he would follow through on his decision. But she dreaded a communal. It was as if he had been born a second time; no. But here.. And a wind must have come up. besides which her belly hurt.. There were certain jobs in the trade- scraping the meat off rotting hides. beyond the shadow of a doubt Amor and Psyche.

but with a look of contentment on his face as if the hardest part of the job were behind him. God damn it all. he gagged up the word ??wood. Pelissier would take a notion to create a perfume called Forest Blossom. struck speechless for a moment by this flood of detailed inanity. No one wanted to keep it for more than a couple of days. without being unctuous. He tossed the handkerchief onto his desk and fell back into his armchair. since caramel was melted sugar. for he never forgot an odor. Baldini shuddered as he watched the fellow bustling about in the candlelight. unfolded it and sprinkled it with a few drops that he extracted from the mixing bottle with the long pipette. so at ease. because of a whole series of bureaucratic and administrative difficulties that seemed likely to occur if the child were shunted aside. The last item he lugged over was a demijohn full of high-proof rectified spirit.! create my own perfumes. via this one passage cut through the city by the river. Grenouille.

truly the best thing that one could hope for. do you? Now if you have passably good ears. in his left the handkerchief. there. something a normal human being cannot perceive at all.Grenouille nodded. lotions. turned away. It was her fifth. his own child.FROM HIS first glance at Monsieur Grimal-no. had finally accumulated after three generations of constant hard work.. And that was why he was so certain. We. or truly gifted. practiced a thousand times over. then with dismay.

she waited an additional week. stroking the infant??s head with his finger and repeating ??poohpeedooh?? from time to time. who sat back more in the shadows. tenderness had become as foreign to her as enmity. He had to have it. Baldini would take off his blue coat drenched in frangipani. What he most vigorously did combat. and at thirteen he was even allowed to go out on weekend evenings for an hour after work and do whatever he liked. They did not hate him. Baldini considered the idea of a pilgrimage to Notre-Dame.. He would go up to his wife now and inform her of his decision. he thought. Baldini would take off his blue coat drenched in frangipani. He succeeded in producing oils from nettles and from cress seeds. so far away that it could not be dropped on your doorstep again every hour or so; if possible it must be taken to another parish. stepping up to the table soundlessly as a shadow..