flowing toward Baldini. the stench of caustic lyes from the tanneries. One ought to have sent for a priest. nor had lived much longer.

Even if the fellow could deliver it to him by the gallon
Even if the fellow could deliver it to him by the gallon. He stood there motionless for a long time gazing at the splendid scene. hissed out in reptile fashion. Besides which. so that nothing about it could wiggle or wobble. according to all the rules of the art. He had preserved the best part of her and made it his own: the principle of her scent. to smell only according to the innermost structures of its magic formula. Pelissier! An old stinker is what you are! An upstart in the craft of perfumery. He ordered him moved from his bunk in the laboratory to a clean bed on the top floor. would have to run experiments for several days. of their livelihood.When he was twelve. He pulled a fresh white lace handkerchief out of a desk drawer and unfolded it. when from the doorway came Grenouille??s pinched snarl: ??I don??t know what a formula is.Obviously he did not decide this as an adult would decide. I believe it contains lime oil. after several of the grave pits had caved in and the stench had driven the swollen graveyard??s neighbors to more than mere protest and to actual insurrection -was it finally closed and abandoned. knew that he was on the right track.

Maitre Baldini. he snatched up the scent as if it were a powder. which was more like a corpse than a living organism. hmm. as if the vendors still swarmed among the crowd. who had not yet finished his speech.He was an especially eager pupil. If he made it through. its aroma. He was an abomination from the start.. and given to reason. there was nothing at all about him to instill terror. 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..Baldini had thousands of them. it appears. Baldini hectically bustled about heating a brick-lined hearth- because speed was the alpha and omega of this procedure-and placed on it a copper kettle. The heat lay leaden upon the graveyard.

for the bloody meat that had emerged had not differed greatly from the fish guts that lay there already. But it didn??t smell like milk. as bold and determined as ever to contend with fate-even if contending meant a retreat in this case. after all. a man of honor. he contracted anthrax. where he dreamed of an odoriferous victory banquet. nor would the ingredients available in Baldini??s shop have even begun to suffice for his notions about how to realize a truly great perfume. then open them up. Right now he was interested in finding out the formula for this damned perfume. perfumer. and turned around. He helped bear the patient up the narrow stairway with his own hands.????As you please.. without mention of the reason. or perhaps precisely because of her total lack of emotion. And after that he would take his valise. But since these convoys were made up of porters who carried bark baskets into which.

the master scent taken from that girl in the rue des Marais. and would do it. nothing else. On the other hand. that must be it. But then. Then he made a hasty sign of the cross with his right hand and left the room. He learned the art of rinsing pomades and producing. Go now! Come on!??And he picked up one of the candlesticks and passed through the door into the shop. His breath passed lightly through his nose. And yet there it was as plain and splendid as day. love-or whatever all those things are called that children are said to require- were totally dispensable for the young Grenouille. Torches were lit. One of those battleships easily cost a good 300. the Pont-au-Change was considered one of the finest business addresses in the city. always in two buckets. for gusts were serrating the surface. for her sense of smell had been utterly dulled. she wanted to put this revolting birth behind her as quickly as possible.

and when the money owed her still had not appeared. Soon he was no longer smelling mere wood. the young Baldini. was growing and growing. for the trouser manufacturer continued to pay her annuity punctually. ??wood. hunched over again. despite his unutterable disgust at the pustules and festering boils. the distinctive odor of which seemed to him worth preserving. More remarkable still. and with each whisk he automatically snapped up a portion of scent-drenched air. publishers howled and submitted petitions. No one poled barges against the current here. he sniffed all around the infant??s head. her father had struck her across the forehead with a poker. Baldini paid the twenty livres and took him along at once. where life would be relatively bearable for him. and spooned wine into his mouth hoping to bring words to his tongue-all night long and all in vain. Jeanne Bussie.

castor. the catalog of odors ever more comprehensive and differentiated. Baldini!The second rule is: perfume lives in time; it has its youth.. for it was like the old days. to live. moreover. With each new day. also bearing the Baldini coat of arms embroidered in gold. then in a threadlike stream. very. then he was obviously an impostor who had somehow pinched the recipe from Pelissier in order to gain access and get a position with him. But that doesn??t make you a cook.And then all at once the lips of the dying boy opened. deprived the other sucklings of milk and them. who want to subordinate the whole world to their despotic will.CHENIER: Naturally not. He sensed he had been proved wrong. however.

I only know one thing: this baby makes my flesh creep because it doesn??t smell the way children ought to smell. to get a premature olfactory sensation directly from the bottle. He was not aggressive. rats. Grenouille had long since gained the other bank. of sage and ale and tears. each house so tightly pressed to the next. ordinary monk were assigned the task of deciding about such matters touching the very foundations of theology. 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. divided the rest of the perfume between two small bottles. as dispensable and to maintain in all earnestness that order. about building canals. but as a demand; nor was it really spoken. frugality. A low entryway opened up. Baldini was worried. or a thieving impostor.??Yes indeed. He had triumphed.

And Baldini was carrying yet another plan under his heart. He did not have to test it. She might have been thirteen. and his whole life would be bungled. attention. Now it let itself drop.?? said the figure and stepped closer and held out to him a stack of hides hanging from his cocked arm. soaps. ??They are all here. Besides which. hmm. wonderful.??No. sensed at once what Grenouille was about. grasping the back of his armchair with both hands. which connected the right bank with the He de la Cite. Her sweat smelled as fresh as the sea breeze. nor furtive. ??If you??ll let me.

. Millions of bones and skulls were shoveled into the catacombs of Montmartre and in its place a food market was erected. where. He was not an inventor. the maiden??s fragrance blossoms as does the white narcissus.. good mood.The king himself had had them demonstrate some sort of newfangled nonsense. pulpy. and just as little when she bore her children.??You have. The street smelled of its usual smells: water.. 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. the table would be sold tomorrow. For substances lacking these essential oils. Then he sat down in a chair next to the bed. his family thriving. packed by smart little girls.

drop by drop. stemmed and pitted it with a knife. The eyes were of an uncertain color. perhaps a half hour or more. ??really nothing out of the ordinary. Closing time. grass. He devoured everything.?? ??goat stall. there reigned in the cities a stench barely conceivable to us modern men and women. He pulled back his own nose as if he smelled something foul that he wanted nothing to do with. grated. ??Now take the child home with you! I??ll speak to the prior about all this. sat in her little house. Slowly he straightened up. Madame Gaillard??s establishment was a blessing. potpourris and bowls for flower petals. that floated behind the carriages like rich ribbons on the evening breeze. With her left hand.

and powdered amber.?? but one and only one way. and if it isn??t alms he wants. He would go up to his wife now and inform her of his decision. The greatest preserve for odors in all the world stood open before him: the city of Paris.. and. Grenouille had almost unfolded his body. And a wind must have come up. the distribution of its moneys to the poor and needy. I find that distressing. England. it would doubtless have abruptly come to a grisly end. the glass funnel. getting it back on the floor all in one piece. morals. and orphans a year. and with each whisk he automatically snapped up a portion of scent-drenched air. I have a journeyman already.

and with her his last customer.She had red hair and wore a gray. she gave up her business. for Chenier was a gossip.?? the wet nurse snarled back. Fine! That his art was a craft like any other. But what had formed in Grenouille??s immodest thoughts was not. the cabinetmakers. and orphans a year. so to speak. She only wanted the pain to stop. almost worse than the basic identification of the parts. he gagged up the word ??wood. He did not know exactly how babies?? heads were supposed to smell.And so Baldini decided to leave no stone unturned to save the precious life of his apprentice.????Ah. now there.. The regulations of the craft functioned as a welcome disguise.

standing at the table with eyes aglow. far out the rue de Charonne. and a single cannon shot would sink it in five minutes. really. Pressed Oriental pastilles of myrrh. Baldini enjoyed the blaze of the fire and the flickering red of the flames and the copper.CHENIER: Naturally not. cold creature lay there on his knees. who every season launched a new scent that the whole world went crazy over. the manufacturers of the finest lingerie and stockings. He placed all three next to one another along the back. God gives good times and bad times. And what are a few drops-though expensive ones. He had hardly a single customer left now.. Madame did not dun them.For little Grenouille. tree.Grenouille had meanwhile freed himself from the doorframe.

had a soothing effect on Baldini and strengthened his self-confidence. virtually a small factory. so. sewing gloves of chamois. More remarkable still. the courtyards of urine.????He??s possessed by the devil. but only out of long-standing habit. and religious quagmire that man had created for himself. they could simply follow their olfactory whims and concoct whatever popped into their heads or struck the public??s momentary fancy. ??How would you mix it???For the first time. but. but as a useful house pet. you will still be able to get a good price for your slumping business.?? said Baldini. gave him in return a receipt for her brokerage fee of fifteen francs.They had crossed through the shop.Madame Gaillard. That reassured him.

She only wanted the pain to stop. 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. where other children hardly dared go even with a lantern. God didn??t make the world in seven days. indeed. now there.. He had probably never left Paris. gently sloping staircase. 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. storage rooms occupied not just the attic. Or rather. oak wood. But it didn??t smell like milk. the distribution of its moneys to the poor and needy. which wasn??t even a proper nose.. who knew that in this business there was no ??your way?? or ??my way. fifteen.

young man. Every other woman would have kicked this monstrous child out. tree. he halted his experiments and fell mortally ill. the Quai Malaquest. His eyes were open and he gazed up at Baldini with the same strange. right???Grenouille was now standing up. to get a premature olfactory sensation directly from the bottle. don??t spill anything. We??ll scrupulously imitate his mixture.FATHER TERRIER was an educated man. and Grenouille??s mother. either!?? Then in a calm voice tinged with irony.CHENIER: It??s a terribly common scent. and finally he forbade him to create new scents unless he. 1753. de Sade??s. his soaked carcass-float briskly downriver toward the west.?? It was Amor and Psyche.

His breath passed lightly through his nose. clove. an inner fortress built of the most magnificent odors. because something like that was likely to lower the selling price of his business. the immense ocean that lay to the west. The rest of the stupid stuff-the blossoms. and a knife. He carried himself hunched over.. you love them whether they??re your own or somebody else??s. her skin as apricot blossoms. nothing else. he no longer doubted that they were now his and his alone. tinctures.??She stands up.. did not look at her. Grenouille was out to find such odors still unknown to him; he hunted them down with the passion and patience of an angler and stored them up inside him. fully human existence.

you shall not!?? screamed Baldini in horror-a scream of both spontaneous fear and a deeply rooted dread of wasted property. which was more like a corpse than a living organism. up there in the north. and that was why Chenier must know nothing about it. and molded greasy sticks of carmine for the lips. but squeezed out. ??I shall retire to my study for a few hours. he had the greatest difficulty. I see! You are creating a new perfume.And from the west. He looked as if he were hiding behind his own outstretched arm. Mint and lavender could be distilled by the bunch.. An absolute classic-full and harmonious. He had to lift it almost even with his head to be on a level with the funnel that had been inserted in the mixing bottle and into which he poured the alcohol directly from the demijohn without bothering to use a measuring glass. and animal secretions within tinctures and fill them into bottles. trembling and whining. and could be revived only with the most pungent smelling salts of clove oil..

it is certainly not because Grenouille fell short of those more famous blackguards when it came to arrogance. so that he looked like a black spider that had latched onto the threshold and frame. One day the older ones conspired to suffocate him. And it was more. sparing itself and the world a great deal of mischief. full of old-fashioned soaps. 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. Baldini finally managed to obtain such synthetic formulas. Grenouille survived the illness. where at an address near the cloister of Madeleine de Trenelle. and sachets and make his rounds among the salons of doddering countesses. but was able to participate in the creative process by observing and recording it. mustache waxes.By that time the child had already changed wet nurses three times. glare. For a moment it seemed the direction of the river had changed: it was flowing toward Baldini. the stench of caustic lyes from the tanneries. One ought to have sent for a priest. nor had lived much longer.