Король расхитителей гробниц - Глава 13
To avoid dripping molten wax onto the table, he smoothed the leather surface with the back of his fingers. Then he turned the leather over.
Stroking the velvety, yet uneven and soft inner surface, the leather is of exceptional quality. It's particularly suitable for adding...
This is Spanish leather. It doesn't lose its shape when dry, and if you use a scraping tool, it will become soft again.
He could immediately tell how resilient it was just by pinching it between his thumb and forefinger. This type of leather, when perfumed, can maintain its texture.
The aroma lasts five to ten years. It's a high-quality leather—perhaps it could be used to make gloves for a trip to Messina.
Okay, I'll make three sets for myself and three for my wife.
He withdrew his hand. How charming the workbench was! Everything was neatly arranged: the glass basin for perfume and bath gel, conveniently...
A glass plate for drying the reagent, a bowl for mixing the reagent, a spatula, a brush, a scraper, and scissors.
The tools seemed to have fallen asleep because of the darkness, as if they would wake up again tomorrow. Perhaps he should take this table with him.
Going to Messina? Perhaps I should bring some tools, the most important tools...? Working at this table is very comfortable.
It's suitable. It's made of oak planks, as is the base, with horizontal bracing, so this workbench never loosens.
It's also acid-resistant, oil-resistant, and knife-resistant—taking it to Mexico, even with a boat towing it, would cost a fortune!
Therefore, it will have to be sold tomorrow, and everything placed on top of, below, and beside it will also have to be sold!
For him, Baldini certainly had a sentimental heart, but he also possessed a strong personality, therefore no matter how...
Even though it's painful, he will carry out his decision; he will sell everything with tears in his eyes, and he will do it anyway.
Because he knew it was true; he had received a sign.
He turned to leave. The deformed boy was still standing in the doorway; he'd almost forgotten about him. "Great,"
Barr said it was about telling your master that the leather was very good. He said he'd pay me when he passed by there a few days later.
“Yes,” Grenouille said. He remained standing, blocking Baldini from leaving the work area and returning it to the tracks.
They didn't think the boy's behavior was shameless, but rather that he was shy.
"What is it?" he asked. "Is there anything else you want to tell me? Please tell me!"
Grenouille stood with a hunched posture, staring at him with a gaze that seemed timid but was actually...
It stems from underlying anxiety.
“I want to work for you, Master Baldini. I want to work here, in your shop.”
The tone of these words was not a request, but a demand; they were not spoken aloud, but rather squeezed out.
It was forced out, quite insidious. Baldini again mistook Grenouille's risky confidence for childlike clumsiness.
"Yes." He smiled kindly at him. "You're a tanning apprentice, my son," he said, "I don't need to do tanning."
Apprentice. I have my own assistant; I don't need an apprentice.
"You want to perfume these goatskins, right, Master Baldini? The leathers I brought you, you must use them to perfume them."
"Perfume?" Grenouille mumbled, as if he hadn't heard Baldini's reply at all.
“That’s true,” Baldini said.
"Use 'Amor and Psyche' against Pellissie?" Grenouille asked, bending down even further.
Baldini's body twitched slightly; he felt a chill. This wasn't because he was asking himself, but because of the young man...
How did he know so clearly? It wasn't because the boy had uttered the name of that wretched perfume, which he had tried to decipher earlier that day.
The mystery of opening the perfume was solved, but it failed.
"How could you have such an absurd idea that I would use someone else's perfume..."
“You smell like that!” Grenouille muttered. “You smell it on your forehead, on your coat…”
There was a handkerchief stained with this perfume in the right pocket. This 'Amour & Psyche' isn't very good; it has bergamot in it.
Too much lemon, too much rosemary oil, and too little rose oil.
“Aha!” Baldini said, surprised by the precision of the wording. “What else?”
Orange blossom, sweet lemon, clove, eucalyptus, jasmine, alcohol, and some other things I can't name.
"Here, look! In this bottle!" He pointed to the darkness. Baldini extended the candlestick toward what he was pointing to.
The direction, the gaze followed the boy's index finger, landing on a bottle on the shelf. This bottle contained a grayish-yellow color.
Balm.
“Styrax?” he asked.
Grenouille nodded. "Yes. It's in here. Styrax." Then, as if in a spasm, he...
He curled up, repeating the word "storax" at least ten times: "Storax, storax, storax..."
Blended fragrance, styrax…
Baldini turned the candle toward the little man muttering about styrax, thinking: He's either possessed or...
He's either a fraud or a genius. Because correctly synthesizing "Amor and Psyche" using the stated materials...
This is entirely possible, even highly probable. Rose oil, cloves, and styrax—these three ingredients...
He spent the whole afternoon searching, but without success; other ingredients could work with them—he believed he had found the right approach.
Recognizing these ingredients is like recognizing a slice of cake within a beautiful round cake. Now, the only question is:
What precise proportions are needed to combine these ingredients? To figure out these proportions, he—Barth...
Erdini—having to conduct experiments for days on end was a daunting task, far more difficult than simply identifying the ingredients.
We need to do this because it requires measurement, weighing, and recording, and it requires extreme care, because even a slight mistake—
A slight shake of the dropper, leading to a miscount while counting the drops—can cause a failure. And each failure wastes a lot of money.
Each batch of the mixture amounted to a small fortune… He wanted to test the boy, so he asked him, “Amor and Psyche?”
The exact molecular formula. If he knew the molecular formula down to the last gram and drop—then he must be a fraud.
He must have somehow obtained Pellissiere's formula in order to get a job with Baldini. For example...
If he only guessed roughly, then he's a genius with an exceptionally keen sense of smell, and such a genius would ignite Baal's...
Baldini was extremely interested. Who knew if this would shake Baldini's resolve to give up the shop! He felt that, regarding the perfume...
For him, Pélissiere's perfume was irrelevant. Even if the boy managed to get him countless liters of perfume, Bardí...
Ni never dreamed he would use this perfume to spray Count Villamont's Spanish leather, but... but a
A person can spend their entire life as a perfume-making expert, constantly busy blending fragrances, after all, it's not for just one hour.
He'd completely lost all his professional enthusiasm in an hour! At this moment, he was interested in figuring out the molecules of this damn perfume.
He then went on to study the talent of this terrifying young man. He had just smelled something on his forehead...
A certain fragrance. Baldini wondered what the reason was. He was very curious about it.
“Young man, it seems you have a keen sense of smell,” he said after Grenouille stopped reciting the styrax incense.
Back in the workshop, he carefully blew out the candle on the workbench. "Without a doubt, her nose is very sensitive."
but……"
“My nose is the best in Paris, Master Baldini,” Grenouille interrupted. “I know…”
I know all the scents of the world, all the scents of Paris, and only a few whose names I cannot name, but which I can...
To learn their names, all the named scents, there aren't that many, only a few thousand, I want to learn them all.
I will never forget the name of this balm, styrax. This balm is called styrax, it's called styrax.
..."
"Shut up!" Baldini shouted. "Don't interrupt me! You're so talkative and arrogant."
No one can name a thousand scents. Even I can't name a thousand scents; I only know...
Hundreds of kinds, because there are at most a few hundred kinds in our industry; all the others don't smell, they smell awful!
Grenouille's body was almost completely relaxed and excited as he spoke at length, like a volcanic eruption.
He even waved his arms for a moment, drawing a circle, in order to describe "everything, everything" that he knew.
He was depicted, but when Baldini struck him hard, he immediately cowered, like a small black wretch.
Except for one, which stood motionless on the threshold, watching intently.
“Of course I knew that long ago,” Baldini continued, “'Amor and Psyche' is made from styrax,
It is composed of rose oil, cloves, and bergamot and rosemary extracts, among others. To understand this, as mentioned before,
All you need is a very sensitive nose—and it's quite possible that God gave you a very sensitive nose, just as He also gave you…
Like many people—especially someone your age. However, a perfume expert,” Baldini said.
He raised his index finger and puffed out his chest, "A perfume expert doesn't just need a sensitive nose, he..."
It requires a relentlessly trained olfactory organ capable of accurately detecting...
To understand the types and quantities of the most complex scents, while simultaneously designing new and unprecedented aromatic blends.
"A nose like that," he gently touched his nose with his finger, "you don't have one, young man! Only..."
It can only be achieved through long-term persistence and hard work. Perhaps you can immediately tell me the precise meaning of 'Amour and Psyche'.
Molecular formula? Immediately? Can you do it?
Grenouille did not answer.
"Perhaps you can give me a general idea!" he said, leaning forward slightly to speak more carefully.
Look at that pesky creature by the door. "Give me a brief overview? Right now? Go ahead, you have the most sensitive nose in Paris!"
But Grenouille remained silent.
“Look,” Baldini said, both satisfied and disappointed, straightening up again, “you simply can’t. Of course not.”
Yes. How could you possibly know that! You're just like everyone else; when you eat, you can only tell if there's sherry or fragrant tea in the soup.
Well then—that's a skill, isn't it? But precisely because of that, you're far from being a chef. In every skill...