Works of Jules Verne/Round the World in Eighty Days/Chapter 37
CHAPTER XXXVII
IN WHICH IT IS PROVED THAT PHILEAS FOGG HAS GAINED NOTHING BY MAKING THIS TOUR OF THE WORLD UNLESS IT BE HAPPINESS
Yes! Phileas Fogg in person.
It will be remembered that at five minutes after eight in the evening, about twenty-five hours after the arrival of the travelers in London, Passepartout was charged by his master to inform Rev. Samuel Wilson in reference to a certain marriage which was to take place the next day.
Passepartout went, delighted. He repaired with rapid steps to the residence of Rev. Samuel Wilson, who had not come home. Of course Passepartout waited, but he waited full twenty minutes at least.
In short, it was thirty-five minutes past eight when he left the clergyman's house. But in what a condition! His hair disordered, hatless, running, running as has never been seen in the memory of man, upsetting passers-by, rushing along the sidewalks like a water-spout.
In three minutes, he had returned to the house in Saville Row, and fell, out of breath, in Mr. Fogg's room.
He could not speak.
"What is the matter?" asked Mr. Fogg.
"Master"—stammered Passepartout—"Marriage—impossible!"
"Impossible?"
"Impossible—to-morrow."
"Why?"
"Because to-morrow is—Sunday!"
"Monday," replied Mr. Fogg.
"No—to-day—Saturday."
"Saturday? Impossible!"
"Yes, yes, yes, yes!" cried Passepartout "You have made a mistake of one day. We arrived twenty-four hours in advance—but there are not ten minutes left!"
Passepartout seized his master by the collar, and dragged him along with irresistible force!
Phileas Fogg, thus taken, without having time to reflect, left his room, went out of his house, jumped into a cab, promised one hundred pounds to the driver, and, after running over two dogs and running into five carriages, arrived at the Reform Club. The clock indicated quarter of nine, when he appeared in the grand saloon.
Phileas Fogg had accomplished this tour of the world in eighty days!
Phileas Fogg had won his bet of twenty thousand pounds!
And now, how could so exact and cautious a man have made this mistake of a day? How did he think that it was the evening of Saturday, December 21, when it was only Friday, December 20, only seventy-nine days after his departure.
This is the reason for this mistake. It is very simple.
Phileas Fogg had, without suspecting it, gained a day on his journey only because he had made the tour of the world going to the east, and on the contrary he would have lost a day going in the contrary direction, that is, towards the west.
Indeed, journeying towards the east Phileas Fogg was going towards the sun, and consequently the days became as many times four minutes less for him, as he crossed degrees in that direction. Now there are three hundred and sixty degrees to the earth's circumference, and these three hundred and sixty degrees, multiplied by four minutes, give precisely twenty-four hours—that is to say, the day unconsciously gained. In other words, while Phileas Fogg, traveling towards the east, saw the sun pass the meridian eighty times, his colleagues, remaining in London, saw it pass only seventy-nine times. Therefore this very day, which was Saturday, and not Sunday, as Mr. Fogg thought, his friends were waiting for him in the saloon of the Reform Club.
And Passepartout's famous watch, which had always kept London time, would have shown this, if it had indicated the days, as well as the minutes and hours!
Phileas Fogg then had won the twenty thousand pounds. But as he had spent in his journey about nineteen thousand, the pecuniary result was small. However, as has been said, the eccentric gentleman had sought in his bet to gain the victory, and not to make money. And even the thousand pounds remaining he divided between Passepartout and the unfortunate Fix, against whom he could not cherish a grudge. Only for the sake of exactness, he retained from his servant the cost of the gas burned through his fault for nineteen hundred and twenty hours.
This very evening Mr. Fogg, as impassible and as phlegmatic as ever, said to Aouda:
"This marriage is still agreeable to you?"
"Mr. Fogg," replied Aouda ,"it is for me to ask you that question. You were ruined; now you are rich———"
"Pardon me, madam; my fortune belongs to you. If you had not thought of the marriage, my servant would not have gone to the house of Rev. Samuel Wilson. I would not have been apprised of my mistake, and———"
"Dear Mr. Fogg———" said the young woman.
"Dear Aouda," replied Phileas Fogg.
It is readily understood that the marriage took place forty-eight hours later, and Passepartout, superb, resplendent, dazzling, was present as the young woman's witness. Had he not saved her, and did they not owe him that honor?
At daylight the next morning, Passepartout knocked noisily at his master's door.
The door opened, and the impassible gentleman appeared.
"What is the matter, Passepartout?"
"What's the matter, sir! I have just found out this moment———"
"What?"
"That we could make the tour of the world in seventy-eight days."
"Doubtless," replied Mr. Fogg, "by not crossing India. But if I had not crossed India, I would not have saved Aouda, she would not be my wife, and———"
And Mr. Fogg quietly shut the door.
Thus Phileas Fogg won his bet. In eighty days he had accomplished the tour around the world! To do this he had employed every means of conveyance, steamers, railways, carriages, yachts, merchant vessels, sledges, elephants. The eccentric gentleman had displayed in this affair his wonderful qualities of coolness and exactness.
But what then? What had he gained by leaving home? what had be brought back from his journey?
Nothing, do you say? Nothing, perhaps, but a charming woman, who—improbable as it may appear—made him the happiest of men!
Truly, would you not, for less than that, make the tour of the world?
the end