by Verne, Jules, 1828-1905
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Mr. Fogg took out the twenty guineas he had just won at vrhist, and handed them to the beggar, saying, '^ Here, my good woman. I 'm glad that I met you;" and passed on.
Passepartout had a moist sensation about the eyes ; his master's action touched his susceptible heart.
Two first-class tickets for Paris having been speedily
purchased, Mr. Fogg was crossing the station to the trahi, when he perceived his five friends of the Reform.
"Well, gentlemen," said he, '^I'm off, you see; and if you will examine my passport when I get back, you will be able to judge whether I have accomplished the journey agreed upon."
'^ Oh, that would be quite unnecessary, Mr. Fogg," said Ralph, politely. " We will trust your word, as a gentleman of honour."
"You do not forget when you are due in London again .''" asked Stuart.
"In eighty days ; on Saturday, the 21st of December, 1872, at a quarter before nine p.m. Good-bye, gentlemen."
Phileas Fo^-g- and his servant seated themselves in a first-class carriage at twenty minutes before nine ; five minutes later the whistle screamed, and the train slowly glided out of the station.
The night was dark, and a fine, steady rain was falling. Phileas Fogg, snugly ensconced in his corner, did not open his lips. Passepartout, not yet recovered from his stupefaction, clung mechanically to the carpet-bag, with its enormous treasure.
Just as the train was whirling through Sydenham, Passepartout suddenly uttered a cry of despair.
"What's the matter.?" asked Mr. Fogg.
''Alas ! In my hurry?I?I forgot ?" "What?"
" To turn off the gas in my room !"
"Very well, young man," returned Mr. Fogg, coolly; " it will burn?at your expense."
CHAPTER V.
IN WHICH A NEW SPECIES OF FUNDS, UNKNOWN TO THE MONEYED MEN, APPEARS ON 'CHANGE.
Phileas Fogg rightly suspected that his departure from London would create a lively sensation at the West End. The news of the bet spread through the Reform Club, and afforded an exciting topic of conversation to its members. From the Club it soon got into the papers throughout England. The boasted " tour of the world " was talked about, disputed, argued with as much warmth as if the subject were another Alabama claim. Some took sides with Phileas Fogg, but the large majority shook their heads and declared against him ; it was absurd, impossible, they declared, that the tour of the world could be made, except theoretically and on paper, in this minimum of time, and with the existing means of travelling. The Times, Standard, Monwig Post, and Daily News, and twenty other highly respectable newspapers scouted
I^.Ir. Fogg's project as madness ; the Daily Telegraph alone hesitatingly supported him. People in general thought him a lunatic, and blamed his Reform Club friends for having accepted a wager which betrayed the mental aberration of its proposer.
Articles no less passionate than logical appeared on the question, for geography is one of the pet subjects of the English; and the columns devoted to Phileas Fogg's venture were eagerly devoured by all classes of readers. At first some rash individuals, principally of the gentler sex, espoused his cause, which became still more popular when the Illustrated London News came out v/ith his portrait, copied from a photograph in the Reform Club. A few readers of the Daily Telegraph even dared to say, " Why not, after all ? Stranger things have come to pass."
At last a long article appeared, on the 7th of October, in the bulletin of the Royal Geographical Society, which treated the question from every point of view, and demonstrated the utter folly of the enterprise.
Everything, it said, was against the travellers, every obstacle imposed alike by man and by nature. A miraculous agreement of the times of departure and arrival, which was impossible, was absolutely necessary to his success. He might, perhaps, reckon on the arrival of trains at the designated hours, in Europe, where the distances
