Works of Jules Verne/Round the World in Eighty Days/Chapter 1
Round the World in Eighty Days
CHAPTER I
IN WHICH PHILEAS FOGG AND PASSEPARTOUT ACCEPT EACH OTHER AS MASTER AND SERVANT
N the year 1872, the house No. 7, Saville Row, Burlington Gardens—the house in which Sheridan died, in 1814—was inhabited by Phileas Fogg, Esq., one of the most singular and most noticed members of the Reform Club of London, although he seemed to take care to do nothing which might attract attention.
This Phileas Fogg, then, an enigmatic personage, of whom nothing was known but that he was a very polite man, and one of the most perfect gentlemen of good English society, succeeded one of the greatest orators that honor England.
An Englishman Phileas Fogg was surely, but perhaps not a Londoner. He was never seen on 'Change, at the bank, or in any of the counting-rooms of the "City." The docks of London had never received a vessel fitted out by Phileas Fogg. This gentleman did not figure in any public body. His name had never sounded in any Inns of Court. He never pleaded in the Court of Chancery, nor the Queen's Bench. He was neither a manufacturer, nor a merchant, nor a gentleman farmer. He was not a member of the Royal Institution of Great Britain, or the London Institution, or the Literary Institution of the West, or the Law Institute, or that Institute of the Arts and Sciences, placed under the direct patronage of her gracious majesty. In fact, he belonged to none of the numerous societies that swarm in the capital of England, from the Harmonic to the Entomological Society, founded principally for the purpose of destroying hurtful insects. Phileas Fogg was a member of the Reform Club, and that was all.
Should anyone be astonished that such a mysterious gentleman should be among the members of this honorable institution, we will reply that he obtained admission on the recommendation of Baring Brothers, with whom he had an open credit. Was this Phileas Fogg rich? Undoubtedly. But the best informed could not say how he had made his money, and Mr. Fogg was the last person to whom it would have been proper to go for information. He was by no means extravagant in anything, neither was he avaricious, for when money was needed for a noble, useful, or benevolent purpose, he gave it quietly, and even anonymously. In short, no one was less communicative than this gentleman. He talked as little as possible, and seemed much more mysterious than silent. His life was open to the light, but what he did was always so mathematically the same thing, that the imagination, unsatisfied, sought further.
Had he traveled? It was probable, for none knew the world better than he; there was no spot so secluded that he did not appear to have a special acquaintance with it. Sometimes, in a few brief, clear words, he would correct the thousand suppositions circulating in the club with reference to travelers lost or strayed; he pointed out the true probabilities, and so often did events justify his predictions, that he seemed as if gifted with a sort of second sight. He was a man who must have traveled everywhere, in spirit at least.
One thing was certain, that for many years Phileas Fogg had not been from London. Those who had the honor of knowing him more intimately than others, affirmed that no one could pretend to have seen him elsewhere than upon this direct route, which he traversed every day to go from his house to the club. His only pastime was reading the papers and playing whist. He frequently won at this quiet game, so very appropriate to his nature; but his winnings never went into his purse, and made an important item in his charity fund. Besides, it must be remarked, that Mr. Fogg evidently played for the sake of playing, not to win. The game was for him a contest, a struggle against a difficulty; but a motionless, unwearying struggle, and that suited his character.
Phileas Fogg was not known to have either wife or children which may happen to the most respectable people—neither relatives nor friends—which is more rare, truly. Phileas Fogg lived alone in his house in Saville Row, where nobody entered. There was never a question as to its interior. A single servant sufficed to serve him. Breakfasting and dining at the club, at hours fixed with the utmost exactness, in the same hall, at the same table, not entertaining his colleagues nor inviting a stranger, he returned home only to go to bed, exactly at midnight, without ever making use of the comfortable chambers which the Reform Club puts at the disposal of its favored members. Of the twenty-four hours he passed ten at his residence either sleeping or busying himself at his toilet. If he walked, it was invariably with a regular step in the entrance hall, with its mosaic floor, or in the circular gallery, above which rose a dome with blue painted windows, supported by twenty Ionic columns of red porphyry. If he dined or breakfasted, the kitchens of the club furnished his table their succulent stores; the waiters of the club, grave personages in dress-coats and shoes with swan-skin soles, served him in a special porcelain and on fine Saxon linen; the club decanters of a lost mold contained his sherry, his port, and his claret, flavored with orange-flower water and cinnamon; and finally the ice of the club, brought at great expense from the American lakes, kept his drinks in a satisfactory condition of freshness.
If to live in such conditions is eccentric, it must be granted that eccentricity has something good in it!
The mansion on Saville Row, without being sumptuous, recommended itself by its extreme comfort. Phileas Fogg demanded from his only servant an extraordinary and regular punctuality. This very day, the second of October, Phileas Fogg had dismissed James Forster—this youth having incurred his displeasure by bringing him shaving water at eighty-four degrees Fahrenheit, instead of eighty-six—and he was waiting for his successor, who was to make his appearance between eleven and half past eleven.
Phileas Fogg, squarely seated in his armchair, his feet close together like those of a soldier on parade, his hands resting on his knees, his body straight, his head erect, was watching the hand of the clock move—a complicated mechanism which indicated the hours, the minutes, the seconds, the days, the days of the month, and the year. At the stroke of half past eleven, Mr. Fogg would, according to his daily habit, leave his house and repair to the Reform Club.At this moment there was a knock at the door of the small parlor in which was Phileas Fogg. James Forster, the dismissed servant, appeared. "The new servant," said he.
A young man, aged thirty, came forward and bowed.
"You are a Frenchman, and your name is John?" Phileas Fogg asked him.
"Jean, if it does not displease monsieur," replied the newcomer. "Jean Passepartout, a surname which has clung to me and which my natural aptitude for withdrawing from a business has justified. I believe, sir, that I am an honest fellow; but to be frank, I have had several trades. I have been a traveling singer; a circus rider, vaulting like Leotard, and dancing on the rope like Blondin; then I became professor of gymnastics, in order to render my talents more useful; and in the last place, I was a sergeant fireman at Paris. I have among my papers notes of remarkable fires. But five years have passed since I left France, and wishing to have a taste of family life, I have been a valet in England. Now, finding myself out of a situation, and having learned that Monsieur Phileas Fogg was the most exact and the most settled gentleman in the United Kingdom, I have presented myself to monsieur with the hope of living tranquilly with him, and of forgetting even the name of Passepartout."
"Passepartout suits me," replied the gentleman. "You are recommended to me. I have good reports concerning you. You know my conditions?"
"Yes, sir."
"Well, what time have you?"
"Twenty-four minutes after eleven," replied Passepartout, drawing from the depths of his pocket an enormous silver watch.
"You are slow," said Mr. Fogg.
"Pardon me, monsieur, but it is impossible."
"You are four minutes too slow. It does not matter. It suffices to state the difference. Then, from this moment twenty-nine minutes after eleven o'clock A. M., this Wednesday, October 2, 1872, you are in my service." That said, Phileas Fogg rose, took his hat in his left hand, placed it upon his head with an automatic movement, and disappeared without another word.
Passepartout heard the street door close once; it was his new master going out; then a second time; it was his predecessor, James Forster, departing in his turn. Passepartout remained alone in the house in Saville Row.