SES wrote: Let's expand our discussion to the first three paragraphs of the story.  Thanks for indicating the paragraph and quoting the sentence or phrase under scrutiny, as everybody has been doing -- this helps those who may not have their copy of the story handy when reading email.

I would like to bring up Baudelaire's poem from Les Fleurs du Mal ( Correspondances) to suggest a relationship bt. Nabokov and CB's  ideas about the connection that poets may establish between the sensorial-earthly dimension and the spiritual-intellect-heavenly dimension. 
In various ways VN's "Signs and Symbols" ( originally he wrote "Symbols and Signs" then he altered the order, cf.Maxim Shreyer), when dealing with a certain H.Brink's diagnostic of " Referential Mania", reminded me of Baudelaire and this famous sonnet in particular by the description of what disturbed the young man.( there has been a discussion about Mallarmé and Baudelaire in former postings in our List)     

The enumeration of items such as the various fruit jellies in S.S and the aromas in CB, plus the gesticulating trees in VN and the signalling "forests of symbols"are worth considering.

CORRESPONDENCES

Nature is a temple in which living pillars 
Sometimes emit confused words; 
Man crosses it through forests of symbols 
That observe him with familiar glances. 

Like long echoes that mingle in the distance 
In a profound tenebrous unity, 
Vast as the night and vast as light, 
Perfumes, sounds, and colors respond to one another. 

Some perfumes are as fresh as the flesh of 
children, Sweet as the sound of oboes, green as pastures
-- And others corrupt, rich, and triumphant, 

Having the expanse of things infinite, 
Such as amber, musk, benzoin, and incense, 
That sing of  the flight of spirit and the senses.

...................................................................................................................................................................................

La nature est un temple où de vivants pilliers 
Laissent parfois sortir de confuses paroles; 
L'homme y passe à travers des forêts de symboles 
Qui l'observent avec des regards familiers. 

Comme de longs échos qui de loin se confondent 
Dans une ténébreuse et profonde unité, 
Vaste comme la nuit et comme la clarté, 
Les parfums, les couleurs et les sons se repondent. 

Ii est des parfums frais comme des chairs d'enfants, 
Doux comme les hautbois, verts comme les prairies, 
-Et d'autres corrompus, riches et triomphants, 

Ayant l'expansion des choses infinies, 
Comme l'ambre, le musc, le benjoin et l'encens 
Qui chantent les transports de l'esprit et des sens.