I could smell a whiff of "fear"

"I never once felt any genuine warmth from his actual presence. In fact, it's just the opposite in real life: I felt a strange coldness, arrogance, sense of privilege, and most of all, those in the closest orbits surrounding and serving him, were always rushing, yet careful as if stepping on eggshells and I'd even go so far as to say that I could smell a whiff of "fear" wafting in the air around him." -- Hitch