Around the World in Eighty Days. Junior Deluxe EditionVerne, Jules
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Around the World in Eighty Days. Junior Deluxe Edition
Verne, Jules
Adventure stories; Voyages around the world -- Fiction
The dwellers in Saville Row would have been surprised the next
day, if they had been told that Phileas Fogg had returned home.
His doors and windows were still closed. No appearance of change
was visible.
After leaving the station, Mr. Fogg gave Passepartout
instructions to purchase some provisions, and quietly went to his
home.
He bore his misfortune with his habitual tranquillity. Ruined!
And by the blundering of the detective! After having steadily
traveled that long journey, overcome a hundred obstacles, braved
many dangers, and still found time to do some good on his way, to
fail near the goal by a sudden event which he could not have
foreseen, and against which he was unarmed; it was terrible! But
a few pounds were left of the large sum he had carried with him.
There only remained of his fortune the twenty thousand pounds
deposited at Barings, and this amount he owed to his friends of
the Reform Club. So great had been the expense of his tour that,
even had he won, it would not have enriched him; and it is
probable that he had not sought to enrich himself, being a man
who rather laid wagers for honor's sake than for the stake
proposed. But this wager totally ruined him.
Mr. Fogg's course, however, was fully decided upon. He knew what
remained for him to do.
A room in the house in Saville Row was set apart for Aouda, who
was overwhelmed with grief at her protector's misfortune. From
the words which Mr. Fogg dropped, she saw that he was meditating
some serious project.
Knowing that Englishmen governed by a fixed idea sometimes resort
to the desperate expedient of suicide, Passepartout kept a narrow
watch upon his master, though he carefully concealed the
appearance of so doing.
First of all, the worthy fellow had gone up to his room, and had
extinguished the gas burner, which had been burning for eighty
days. He had found in the letter-box a bill from the gas company,
and he thought it more than time to put a stop to this expense,
which he had been doomed to bear.
The night passed. Mr. Fogg went to bed, but did he sleep? Aouda
did not once close her eyes. Passepartout watched all night, like
a faithful dog, at his master's door.
Mr. Fogg called him in the morning, and told him to get Aouda's
breakfast, and a cup of tea and a chop for himself. He desired
Aouda to excuse him from breakfast and dinner, as his time would
be absorbed all day in putting his affairs to rights. In the
evening he would ask permission to have a few moment's
conversation with the young lady.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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