Chapter 37
In Which It Is Shown That Phileas Fogg Gained Nothingby His Tour around the World Except Happiness
Yes, Phileas Fogg in person.
The reader will remember that at five minutes past eight in theevening--about five and twenty hours after the arrival of thetravelers in London--Passepartout had been sent by his master toengage the services of the Reverend Samuel Wilson in a certainmarriage ceremony, which was to take place the next day.
Passepartout went on his errand enchanted. He soon reached theclergyman's house, but found him not at home. Passepartoutwaited a good twenty minutes, and when he left the reverendgentleman, it was thirty-five minutes past eight. But in what astate he was! With his hair in disorder, and without his hat, heran along the street as never man was seen to run before,overturning passersby, rushing over the sidewalk like awaterspout.
In three minutes he was in Saville Row again, and staggered backinto Mr. Fogg's room.
He could not speak.
"What is the matter?" asked Mr. Fogg.
"My master!" gasped Passepartout. "Marriage--impossible--"
"Impossible?"
"Impossible--for tomorrow."
"Why so?"
"Because tomorrow--is Sunday!"
"Monday," replied Mr. Fogg.
"No--today--is Saturday."
"Saturday? Impossible!"
"Yes, yes, yes, yes!" cried Passepartout. "You have made amistake of one day! We arrived twenty-four hours ahead of time,but there are only ten minutes left!"
Passepartout had seized his master by the collar, and wasdragging him along with irresistible force.
Phileas Fogg, thus kidnapped, without having time to think, lefthis house, jumped into a cab, promised a hundred pounds to thecabman, and, having run over two dogs and overturned fivecarriages, reached the Reform Club.
The clock indicated a quarter before nine when he appeared in thegreat saloon.
Phileas Fogg had accomplished the journey round the world ineighty days!
Phileas Fogg had won his wager of twenty thousand pounds!
How was it that a man so exact and fastidious could have madethis error of a day? How came he to think that he had arrived inLondon on Saturday, the twenty-first day of December, when it wasreally Friday, the twentieth, the seventy-ninth day only from hisdeparture?
The cause of the error is very simple.
Phileas Fogg had, without suspecting it, gained one day on hisjourney, and this merely because he had traveled constantlyeastward. He would, on the contrary, have lost a day had he gonein the opposite direction, that is, westward.
In journeying eastward he had gone towards the sun, and the daystherefore diminished for him as many times four minutes as hecrossed degrees in this direction. There are three hundred andsixty degrees on the circumference of the earth; and these threehundred and sixty degrees, multiplied by four minutes, givesprecisely twenty-four hours--that is, the day unconsciouslygained. In other words, while Phileas Fogg, going eastward, sawthe sun pass the meridian eighty times, his friends in Londononly saw it pass the meridian seventy-nine times. This is whythey awaited him at the Reform Club on Saturday, and not Sunday.as Mr. Fogg thought.
And Passepartout's famous family watch, which had always keptLondon time, would have betrayed this fact, if it had marked thedays as well as the hours and the minutes!
Phileas Fogg, then, had won the twenty thousand pounds; but, ashe had spent nearly nineteen thousand on the way, the pecuniarygain was small. His object was, however, to be victorious, andnot to win money. He divided the one thousand pounds thatremained between Passepartout and the unfortunate Fix, againstwhom he cherished no grudge. He deducted, however, fromPassepartout's share the cost of the gas which had burned in hisroom for nineteen hundred and twenty hours, for the sake ofregularity.
That evening, Mr. Fogg, as tranquil and phlegmatic as ever, saidto Aouda: "Is our marriage still agreeable to you?"
"Mr. Fogg," replied she, "it is for me to ask that question. Youwere ruined, but now you are rich again."
"Pardon me, madam. My fortune belongs to you. If you had notsuggested our marriage, my servant would not have gone to theReverend Samuel Wilson's, I should not have been informed of myerror, and--"
"Dear Mr. Fogg!" said the young woman.
"Dear Aouda!" replied Phileas Fogg.
It need not be said that the marriage took place forty-eighthours after, and that Passepartout, glowing and dazzling, gavethe bride away. Had he not saved her, and was he not entitled tothis honor?
The next day, as soon as it was light, Passepartout rappedvigorously at his master's door. Mr. Fogg opened it, and asked,"What's the matter, Passepartout?"
"What is it, sir? Why, I've just this instant found out--"
"What?"
"That we might have made the tour of the world in onlyseventy-eight days."
"No doubt," returned Mr. Fogg, "by not crossing India. But if Ihad not crossed India, I should not have saved Aouda. She wouldnot have been my wife, and--"
Mr. Fogg quietly shut the door.
Phileas Fogg had won his wager, and had made his journey aroundthe world in eighty days. To do this he had employed everymeans of conveyance--steamers, railways, carriages, yachts,trading-vessels, sledges, elephants. The eccentric gentleman hadthroughout displayed all his marvelous qualifies of coolness andexactitude. But what then? What had he really gained by all thistrouble? What had he brought back from this long and weary journey?
Nothing, say you? Perhaps so; nothing but a charming woman, who,strange as it may appear, made him the happiest of men!
Truly, would you not for less than that make the tour around the world?
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