Topical Guide 290
Mark Dorset
Smell; Odor; Aroma; Scent
“IT’S A WONDERFUL NIGHT, isn’t it?” said Lorna. “It’s one of those nights when sweet scents are in the air.”
“That might be my hair tonic,” said Herb. They were in Herb’s car, heading for the Serenity Ballroom. Herb wound his window down. “I might’ve put too much on.”Herb ’n’ Lorna
I found the whole path throbbing with the fragrance of hawthorn-blossom. The hedge resembled a series of chapels, whose walls were no longer visible under the mountains of flowers that were heaped upon their altars; while underneath, the sun cast a square of light upon the ground, as though it had shone in upon them through a window; the scent that swept out over me from them was as rich, and as circumscribed in its range, as though I had been standing before the Lady-altar, and the flowers, themselves adorned also, held out each its little bunch of glittering stamens with an air of inattention, fine, radiating ’nerves’ in the flamboyant style of architecture, like those which, in church, framed the stair to the rood-loft or closed the perpendicular tracery of the windows, but here spread out into pools of fleshy white, like strawberry-beds in spring. How simple and rustic, in comparison with these, would seem the dog-roses which, in a few weeks’ time, would be climbing the same hillside path in the heat of the sun, dressed in the smooth silk of their blushing pink bodices, which would be undone and scattered by the first breath of wind.
Marcel Proust, In Search of Lost Time, Swann’s Way
Insecurity: Personal Appearance: Clothing
“I wish I’d had time to get a new suit before I left home,” said Herb. “Well, I had time, but I didn’t take the time.”
“I’m glad you didn’t,” said Lorna.
“You mean you like this suit? I got this before the war, long before the war. … This is a very old suit,” said Herb, meaning all that.
“I didn’t mean that I like the suit,” said Lorna. “I meant that I’m glad you didn’t take the time to get a new one. I’m glad I didn’t have to wait any longer for you to come back. That’s what I meant.”
Herb looked at her and smiled, but the smile faded quickly. “Does that mean you don’t like the suit?” he asked.
“No, it doesn’t,” said Lorna. “I think you look just fine. Your suit is fine. Your shirt is fine. Your tie is beautiful.”
“Beautiful?” said Herb. He looked at Lorna with his face twisted in a worried grimace. “It’s wrong, isn’t it? It’s too loud. Calls attention to itself. I should’ve worn something different. Brown. A brown tie.”Herb ’n’ Lorna, Chapter 7
Insecurity: Rival in Love
She assumed the air of an outraged matron, mother of one of the young men of Chacallit; “I ask you,” she said, “what makes him more desirable than the young men right here in Chacallit?”
“Uh-oh,” said Herb. “I have the feeling that there’s one young man in particular.”
“I’m afraid there has been,” said Lorna.
“Will he be there tonight?”
“I suppose so.”
“How will I recognize him?”
“He’s tall and good-looking — ”
“Mmm.”
“ — with dark, wavy hair and a strong jaw and big hands–”
“Oh boy.”
“ — and he usually has a circle of admirers around him.”Herb ’n’ Lorna, Chapter 7
See also: Smell; Odor; Aroma; Scent TG 135
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