Around the World in 80 Days, Jules Verne [easy novels to read TXT] 📗

had travelled constantly eastward; he would,

on the contrary, have lost a day had he gone in the opposite direction,

that is, westward.

 

In journeying eastward he had gone towards the sun, and the days therefore

diminished for him as many times four minutes as he crossed degrees

in this direction. There are three hundred and sixty degrees

on the circumference of the earth; and these three hundred and sixty degrees,

multiplied by four minutes, gives precisely twenty-four hours—that is,

the day unconsciously gained. In other words, while Phileas Fogg,

going eastward, saw the sun pass the meridian eighty times,

his friends in London only saw it pass the meridian seventy-nine times.

This is why they awaited him at the Reform Club on Saturday,

and not Sunday, as Mr. Fogg thought.

 

And Passepartout’s famous family watch, which had always kept London time,

would have betrayed this fact, if it had marked the days as well as

the hours and the minutes!

 

Phileas Fogg, then, had won the twenty thousand pounds; but,

as he had spent nearly nineteen thousand on the way, the pecuniary

gain was small. His object was, however, to be victorious,

and not to win money. He divided the one thousand pounds

that remained between Passepartout and the unfortunate Fix,

against whom he cherished no grudge. He deducted, however,

from Passepartout’s share the cost of the gas which had burned

in his room for nineteen hundred and twenty hours,

for the sake of regularity.

 

That evening, Mr. Fogg, as tranquil and phlegmatic as ever,

said to Aouda: “Is our marriage still agreeable to you?”

 

“Mr. Fogg,” replied she, “it is for me to ask that question.

You were ruined, but now you are rich again.”

 

“Pardon me, madam; my fortune belongs to you. If you had not

suggested our marriage, my servant would not have gone to

the Reverend Samuel Wilson’s, I should not have been apprised

of my error, and—”

 

“Dear Mr. Fogg!” said the young woman.

 

“Dear Aouda!” replied Phileas Fogg.

 

It need not be said that the marriage took place forty-eight hours after,

and that Passepartout, glowing and dazzling, gave the bride away.

Had he not saved her, and was he not entitled to this honour?

 

The next day, as soon as it was light, Passepartout rapped

vigorously at his master’s door. Mr. Fogg opened it, and asked,

“What’s the matter, Passepartout?”

 

“What is it, sir? Why, I’ve just this instant found out—”

 

“What?”

 

“That we might have made the tour of the world in only seventy-eight days.”

 

“No doubt,” returned Mr. Fogg, “by not crossing India. But if

I had not crossed India, I should not have saved Aouda;

she would not have been my wife, and—”

 

Mr. Fogg quietly shut the door.

 

Phileas Fogg had won his wager, and had made his journey

around the world in eighty days. To do this he had employed

every means of conveyance—steamers, railways, carriages, yachts,

trading-vessels, sledges, elephants. The eccentric gentleman

had throughout displayed all his marvellous qualities of coolness

and exactitude. But what then? What had he really gained by all

this trouble? What had he brought back from this long and weary journey?

 

Nothing, say you? Perhaps so; nothing but a charming woman,

who, strange as it may appear, made him the happiest of men!

 

Truly, would you not for less than that make the tour around the world?