Adventure stories; Voyages around the world -- Fiction
Passepartout opened wide his eyes, raised his eyebrows, held up his
hands, and seemed about to collapse, so overcome was he with stupefied
astonishment.
“Round the world!” he murmured.
“In eighty days,” responded Mr. Fogg. “So we haven’t a moment to lose.”
“But the trunks?” gasped Passepartout, unconsciously swaying his head
from right to left.
“We’ll have no trunks; only a carpet-bag, with two shirts and three
pairs of stockings for me, and the same for you. We’ll buy our clothes
on the way. Bring down my mackintosh and traveling-cloak, and some
stout shoes, though we shall do little walking. Make haste!”
Passepartout tried to reply, but could not. He went out, mounted to his
own room, fell into a chair, and muttered: “That’s good, that is! And
I, who wanted to remain quiet!”
He mechanically set about making the preparations for departure. Around
the world in eighty days! Was his master a fool? No. Was this a joke,
then? They were going to Dover; good! To Calais; good again! After all,
Passepartout, who had been away from France five years, would not be
sorry to set foot on his native soil again. Perhaps they would go as
far as Paris, and it would do his eyes good to see Paris once more. But
surely a gentleman so chary of his steps would stop there; no
doubt—but, then, it was none the less true that he was going away, this
so domestic person hitherto!
By eight o’clock Passepartout had packed the modest carpet-bag,
containing the wardrobes of his master and himself; then, still
troubled in mind, he carefully shut the door of his room, and descended
to Mr. Fogg.
Mr. Fogg was quite ready. Under his arm might have been observed a
red-bound copy of Bradshaw’s Continental Railway Steam Transit and
General Guide, with its timetables showing the arrival and departure of
steamers and railways. He took the carpet-bag, opened it, and slipped
into it a goodly roll of Bank of England notes, which would pass
wherever he might go.
“You have forgotten nothing?” asked he.
“Nothing, monsieur.”
“My mackintosh and cloak?”
“Here they are.”
“Good! Take this carpet-bag,” handing it to Passepartout. “Take good
care of it, for there are twenty thousand pounds in it.”
Passepartout nearly dropped the bag, as if the twenty thousand pounds
were in gold, and weighed him down.
Master and man then descended, the street-door was double-locked, and
at the end of Saville Row they took a cab and drove rapidly to Charing
Cross. The cab stopped before the railway station at twenty minutes
past eight. Passepartout jumped off the box and followed his master,
who, after paying the cabman, was about to enter the station, when a
poor beggar-woman, with a child in her arms, her naked feet smeared
with mud, her head covered with a wretched bonnet, from which hung a
tattered feather, and her shoulders shrouded in a ragged shawl,
approached, and mournfully asked for alms.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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