The Grey Hound

The Grey Hound Hair & Perfume Oil A ghostly whisper of velvety carnation petals, dry sandalwood & white musk, & a bitter twist of grapefruit peel The gaunt, pale animal pads softly, restlessly, through high-ceilinged, moon-silvered rooms, among ghostly sheets thrown over the remaining furniture. Chandeliers clink, cobwebbed and brittle, in unseen drafts, and somewhere high in the empty house, a soft muttering wail. With a low whine and a shake of its pearly grey coat, the hound wheels and trots to the foot of the grand stair, nails clicking on cold marble. It snuffles at the night air, scenting its mistress: once-lustrous blushing carnation and crystalline white musk, a splash of pink grapefruit in a cut-glass of spirits, now desiccated and bitter and wrapped in the dusty wood of her endlessly clacking mala beads. The dog stares, ancient eyes clouded and blind, into the darkness, waiting for her to descend from her eyrie. It cannot remember how long it has been waiting.