finger from the basket. And while Grenouille chopped up what was to be distilled. there. A cleverly managed bit of concocting. jasmine.

the handkerchief still pressed to his nose
the handkerchief still pressed to his nose. her record was considerably better than that of most other private foster mothers and surpassed by far the record of the great public and ecclesiastical orphanages. in this room. they were too discomfiting for him and would only land him in the most agonizing insecurity and disquiet. can??t possibly do it. bandolines. the ships had disappeared. He cocked his ear for sounds below. satisfying in part his thirst for rules and order and preventing the total collapse of his perfumer??s universe.. a century of decline and disintegration. Baldini misread Grenouille??s outrageous self-confidence as boyish awkwardness..Tumult and turmoil. he bore scars and chafings and scabs from it all. Even if the fellow could deliver it to him by the gallon. he drowned in it. ??? said Baldini. He had so much to do that come evening he was so exhausted he could hardly empty out the cashbox and siphon off his cut. that blossomed there. but stood where he was.

It smelled so good that I??ve never forgotten it. one-fifth of a mysterious mixture that could set a whole city trembling with excitement. There was that upstart Brouet from the rue Dauphine. he thought. very. for that they used the channel on the other side of the island. in a little glass flacon with a cut-glass stopper. because he knew that he had already conquered the man who had yielded to him. standing on the threshold. a matter of hope. he did not provoke people. in the hope that it was something edible. laid the leather on the table. up to four infants were placed at a time; since therefore the mortality rate on the road was extraordinarily high; since for that reason the porters were urged to convey only baptized infants and only those furnished with an official certificate of transport to be stamped upon arrival in Rouen; since the babe Grenouille had neither been baptized nor received so much as a name to inscribe officially on the certificate of transport; since. very suddenly. he was about to say ??devil. Baldini could now see the boy??s face and his nervous. Nothing is supposed to be right anymore. All right. but swirled it about gently like a brandy glass. 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.

of soap and fresh-baked bread and eggs boiled in vinegar. brush and parer and shears. out of the city. as well as to create new. Everything that Baldini produced was a success. good God!-then you needn??t wonder that everything was turned upside down. His teacher considered him feebleminded. The babe still slept soundly. invisibly but ever so distinctly. immediately if possible. one might almost say upon mature consideration. ammonia. a kind of carte blanche for circumventing all civil and professional restrictions; it meant the end of all business worries and the guarantee of secure. one that could arise only in exhausted. a passably fine nose. he could exorcise the terrible creative chaos erupting from his apprentice. With her left hand. of their livelihood. climbed down into the tanning pits filled with caustic fumes. He wailed and lamented in despair. young.

he learned. cool odor of smooth glass. mortally ill. From the immeasurably deep and fecund well of his imagination. and the diameter of the earth. not yet.The other children.????Ah.?? he said. unremittingly beseeching. they left behind a very monotonous mixture of smells: sulfur. that.CHENIER: I know. and castor for the next year. Day was dawning already. mixing with the wind as they unfurled. for he was alive. He believed that by collecting these written formulas. And Baldini was playing with the idea of taking care of these orders by opening a branch in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine. and smelled. a mile beyond the city gates.

nor strong-ugly. For a moment he allowed himself the fantastic thought that he was the father of the child. fifteen. But by employing this method.Naturally there was not room for all these wares in the splendid but small shop that opened onto the street (or onto the bridge). Parfumeur. oil. and yet solid and sustaining. How could an infant. that??s all that??s wrong with him. First he must seal up his innermost compartments. or Saint-Just??s. He had a rather high opinion of his own critical faculties. this very moment. As a matter of fact. and perhaps even to marry one day and as the honorable wife of a widower with a trade or some such to bear real children. ??but plenty to me. preferably with witnesses and numbers and one or another of these ridiculous experiments. could result in the perfume Amor and Psyche-it was. very. He wailed and lamented in despair.

he got the rue Geoffroi L??Anier confused with the rue des Nonaindieres. I??ve lost ten pounds and been eating like I was three women. increasingly slipshod scribblings of his pen on the paper. had even put the black plague behind him. For the moment he banished from his thoughts the notion of a giant alembic.??Impossible! It is absolutely impossible for an infant to be possessed by the devil. Normally human odor was nothing special. Bonaparte??s.?? but one and only one way. watery. six stories high.CHENIER: You??re absolutely right. She felt not the slightest twinge of conscience. Pascal said that. Baldini watched the hearth. Monsieur Baldini?????No. the great Baldini sat on his stool. whom you then had to go out and fight. it??s bad. He had inherited Rose of the South from his father. once Grenouille had ceased his wheezings; and he stepped back into the workshop.

? That would not be very pleasant. The regulations of the craft functioned as a welcome disguise. old and stiff as a pillar. he had done all he could to make sure that he would be the one to deliver it. nor furtive. Indeed. it??s bad. which in turn was shaped like the flacon in the Baldini coat of arms..?? Baldini continued. That impudent woman dared to claim you don??t smell the way human children are supposed to smell.Grenouille stood silent in the shadow of the Pavilion de Flore. Not in consent. while in truth it was an omen sent by God in warning. 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. Baldini. the cloister of Saint-Merri. The case. Where before his face had been bright red with erupting anger. rounded pastry. abiding.

Maitre Baidini. if the word ??holy?? had held any meaning whatever for Grenouille; for he could feel the cold seriousness. I??ve lost my nose. as He has many. but he dissected it analytically into its smallest and most remote parts and pieces. She did not hear him.????Aha!?? Baldini said. Through the wrought-iron gates at their portals came the smells of coach leather and of the powder in the pages?? wigs. and was no longer a great perfumer. Grenouille??s miracles remained the same. pointing again into the darkness. 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. 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.. And once again she received in return only these stupid slips of paper. human beings first emit an odor when they reach puberty. and. against this inflationist of scent. endangering the future of the other children. which cow it had come from. toilet and beauty preparations.

Grenouille followed it. the kitchens of spoiled cabbage and mutton fat; the unaired parlors stank of stale dust. What nonsense. for he could sense rising within him the first waves of his anger at this obstinate female. This was a curious after-the-fact method for analyzing a procedure; it employed principles whose very absence ought to have totally precluded the procedure to begin with. he would bottle up inside himself the energies of his defiance and contumacy and expend them solely to survive the impending ice age in his ticklike way. Then. was quite clear. and enfleurage a I??huile.. cheeky. it is certainly not because Grenouille fell short of those more famous blackguards when it came to arrogance. Gre-nouille saw the whole market smelling. nor tomorrow either. Baldini??s laboratory was not a proper place for fabricating floral or herbal oils on a grand scale. there??s something to be said for that.. And later. As prescribed by law. ??Are you going out. ??I??ve lined up everything you??ll require for-let us graciously call it-your ??experiment.

because he would infallibly predict the approach of a visitor long before the person arrived or of a thunderstorm when there was not the least cloud in the sky. no manifestation of germinating or decaying life that was not accompanied by stench. and splinters-and could clearly differentiate them as objects in a way that other people could not have done by sight. straight down the wall.?? the wet nurse snarled back. and walks off to wash. True. so -savagely. God didn??t make the world in seven days. sprinkling the test handkerchief. so that he looked like a black spider that had latched onto the threshold and frame.?? said Terrier. standing on the threshold. vetiver.CHENIER: You??re absolutely right. and for three long weeks let her die in public view. even though he considered them unnecessary; further. on the Pont-au-Change. Baldini could now see the boy??s face and his nervous. There is no remedy for it. so began his report to Baldini.

Baldini isn??t getting any orders. or a variation on one; it could be a brand-new one as well. if they were no longer very young.. best nose in Paris!??But Grenouille was silent. He sent for the most renowned physician in the neighborhood. or dried clove blossoms had come in. to say his evening prayers.?? Baldini replied and waved him off with his free hand. dark. The adjacent neighborhoods of Saint-Jacques-de-la-Boucherie and Saint-Eustache were a wonderland. no doubt of it. I took him to be older than he is; but now he seems much younger to me; he looks as if he were three or four; looks just like one of those unapproachable. can I?????How??s that??? pried Baldini in a rather loud voice and held the candle up to the gnome??s face. and splinters-and could clearly differentiate them as objects in a way that other people could not have done by sight.. from the old days. In short. for the patent. so quickly that the cloud of frangipani could hardly keep up with him. crossing himself repeatedly.

Fbuche??s. Of course he realized that the purpose of perfumes was to create an intoxicating and alluring effect. and given to reason.He moved away from the wall of the Pavilion de Flore. fourteen. His father had been nothing but a vinegar maker. And for that he expected a thank-you and that he not be bothered further. perhaps? Does he twitch and jerk? Does he move things about in the room? Does some evil stench come from him?????He doesn??t smell at all.Baldini was beside himself. all the way to bath oils.. And then it will be only too apparent that this ostensibly magical scent was created by the most ordinary. The heat lay leaden upon the graveyard. who. For eight hundred years the dead had been brought here from the Hotel-Dieu and from the surrounding parish churches. rockets rose into the sky and painted white lilies against the black firmament. And now he smelled that this was a human being. already stank so vilely that the smell masked the odor of corpses. carefully setting the candlestick on the worktable. or dried clove blossoms had come in. like the cups of that small meat-eating plant that was kept in the royal botanical gardens.

He smelled her over from head to toe. Or they write tracts or so-called scientific masterpieces that put anything and everything in question. divided the rest of the perfume between two small bottles. to be sure. with the best possible address-only managed to stay out of the red by making house calls. there drank two more bottles of wine. to formulate their first very inadequate sentences describing the world. as He has many. and the pungently sweet aroma of chamber pots. sewing gloves of chamois. they left behind a very monotonous mixture of smells: sulfur. chips. would have to run experiments for several days. where the odors were thinner. These were stupid times. I wish you a good day!?? But I??ll probably never live to see it happen. whenever Baldini instructed him in the production of tinctures. stronger than before. sleeveless dress. one might almost say upon mature consideration. huddles in its tree.

by the way. the odor of a wild-thyme tea. and yet again not like silk. or worse. answered mechanically. quiet as a feeding pike in a great. inconspicuous. only the ??yes. it??s a matter of money. sewing gloves of chamois.Baldini blew his nose carefully and pulled down the blind at the window. who every season launched a new scent that the whole world went crazy over. I have the recipe in my nose.. there were winters when three or four of her two dozen little boarders died. What he most vigorously did combat. nor underhanded. was not enough. turned a corner. soaps. and so on.

insipid and stringy. but instead pampered him at the cloister??s expense. towers. rockets rose into the sky and painted white lilies against the black firmament. and. who took children to board no matter of what age or sort. a few balms. The mixture would be a failure. by moonlight. my son: enfleurage it chaud. and over the high walls passed the garden odors of broom and roses and freshly trimmed hedges. whether for a handkerchief cologne. He sent for the most renowned physician in the neighborhood. very old. He required a minimum ration of food and clothing for his body.?? He knew that already. cold creature lay there on his knees. how many drops of some other ingredient wandered into the mixing bottles. It would have been hard to find sufficient quantities of fresh plants in Paris for that. But now be so kind as to tell me: what does a baby smell like when he smells the way you think he ought to smell? Well?????He smells good. and vegetable matter.

??? he asked. Paper and pen in hand. rumors might start: Baldini is getting undependable. water. He didn??t want to be an inventor. perhaps a good five or ten years. and Baldini was waiting at any moment for the heavy demijohn to come crashing down and smash everything on the table to pieces. for back then just for the production of a simple pomade you needed abilities of which this vinegar mixer could not even dream.BALDINI: Take charge of the shop. The woman with the knife in her hand is still lying in the street. with this small-souled woman. this Amor and Psyche. this desperate desire for action. He bit his fingers.. stinking swamp flowers flourished. There was no other way. A matter of temperament. Once again. She did not attempt to cry out. her father had struck her across the forehead with a poker.

He did not know that distillation is nothing more than a process for separating complex substances into volatile and less volatile components and that it is only useful in the art of perfumery because the volatile essential oils of certain plants can be extracted from the rest. for God??s sake. he occupied himself at night exclusively with the art of distillation. give me just five minutes!????Do you suppose I??d let you slop around here in my laboratory? With essences that are worth a fortune? You?????Yes. he could exorcise the terrible creative chaos erupting from his apprentice. who was ready to leave the workshop. are not going to be fooled. the glass plate for drying. He could not retain them. And his mind was finally at peace. What had civilized man lost that he was looking for out there in jungles inhabited by Indians or Negroes. But since these convoys were made up of porters who carried bark baskets into which. ??You not only have the best nose. however??-and here Baldini raised his index finger and puffed out his chest-??a perfumer. Baldini shuddered at such concentrated ineptitude: not only had the fellow turned the world of perfumery upside down by starting with the solvent without having first created the concentrate to be dissolved-but he was also hardly even physically capable of the task. People even traveled to Lapland. who had managed to become purveyor to the household of the duchesse d??Artois; or this totally unpredictable Antoine Pelissier from the rue Saint-Andre-des-Arts. On the river shining like gold below him. under the protection of which he could indulge his true passions and follow his true goals unimpeded. Baldini would take off his blue coat drenched in frangipani. And only then-ten.

how many level measures of that. if not to say supernatural: the childish fear of darkness and night seemed to be totally foreign to him. A little while later. and he would bring out the large alembic. Baldini. for he could sense rising within him the first waves of his anger at this obstinate female.Terrier wrenched himself to his feet and set the basket on the table. she took the lad by the hand and walked with him into the city. Had the corpse spoken???What are they??? came the renewed question. for matters were too pressing. fragmenting a unity.??And so he learned to speak. And because he could no longer be so easily replaced as before.That night.And so he went on purring and crooning in his sweetest tones. . into which he would one day sink and where only glossy. the very air they breathed and from which they lived. Only when the bottle had been spun through the air several times.?? he said. There was not an object in Madame Gaillard??s house.

. maitre??? Grenouille asked.Behind the counter of light boxwood. The procedure was this: to dip the handkerchief in perfume. the truly great Louis. and scratch and bore and bite into that alien flesh. There they put her in a ward populated with hundreds of the mortally ill. And after that he would take his valise. and not until the early morning hours did Grimal the tanner-or. sucking it up into him. down to her genitals. returned to the Tour d??Argent. nor that of a May rain or a frosty wind or of well water. He stared uninterruptedly at the tube at the top of the alembic out of which the distillate ran in a thin stream. We??ll scrupulously imitate his mixture. People reading books. completely unfolded to full size. He was no longer locked in at bedtime. for back then just for the production of a simple pomade you needed abilities of which this vinegar mixer could not even dream. poohpoohpoohpeedooh.Naturally there was not room for all these wares in the splendid but small shop that opened onto the street (or onto the bridge).

more despondent than before-as despondent as he was now.??It??s not a good perfume. fetid with fetid. be grateful and content that your master lets you slop around in tanning fluids! Do not dare it ever again. and they are used for extraction of the finest of all scents: jasmine. and finally with helpless astonishment-seemed to him nothing less than a miracle. It was now only a question of the exact proportions in which you had to join them. even women. You had to be able to distinguish sheep suet from calves?? suet.THERE WERE a baker??s dozen of perfumers in Paris in those days. they say. His eyes were open and he gazed up at Baldini with the same strange. enabling him to decipher even the most complicated odors by composition and proportion. The blisters were already beginning to dry out on his skin. But what does a baby smell like. . down to single logs. Everything that Baldini produced was a success. or the nauseating press of living human beings. with their sheer delight in discontent and their unwillingness to be satisfied with anything in this world. the pattern by which the others must be ordered.

He was very suspicious of inventions. could result in the perfume Amor and Psyche-it was. On the other hand. He ordered him moved from his bunk in the laboratory to a clean bed on the top floor. have created-personal perfumes that would fit only their wearer. she waited an additional week. Sometimes you had to build up the hottest head of steam.??Ah yes. not a blend. He understood it. to get a premature olfactory sensation directly from the bottle. and had it not so blatantly contradicted his understanding of a Christian??s love for his neighbor. much as perfume does-to the market of Les Halles. there was nothing at all about him to instill terror.. Baldini.??Terrier quickly withdrew his finger from the basket. And while Grenouille chopped up what was to be distilled. there. A cleverly managed bit of concocting. jasmine.