Around the World in Eighty Days. Junior Deluxe EditionVerne, Jules
General
Around the World in Eighty Days. Junior Deluxe Edition
Verne, Jules
Adventure stories; Voyages around the world -- Fiction
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 former
homebody.
By eight o'clock Passepartout had packed the modest carpetbag,
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 carpetbag, 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?" he asked.
"Nothing, monsieur."
"My mackintosh and cloak?"
"Here they are.
"Good! Take this carpetbag," 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, approached him. Her naked feet were smeared with mud, her
head covered with a wretched bonnet, from which hung a tattered
feather, and her shoulders shrouded in a ragged shawl. She
mournfully asked for alms.
Mr. Fogg took out the twenty guineas he had just won at whist,
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 train, when he perceived
his five friends of the Reform Club.
"Well, gentlemen," he said, "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 honor."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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