|
 | AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS Ebook | |
|
 | |  | | E-book Category: Adventure, Children, Classic
E-book Title: AROUND THE WORLD IN EIGHTY DAYS
Author: Verne Jules
Book Description: Chapter I
IN WHICH PHILEAS FOGG AND PASSEPARTOUT ACCEPT EACH OTHER,
THE ONE AS MASTER, THE Another AS MAN
Mr. Phileas Fogg lived, in 1872, at No. 7, Saville Row, City
Gardens, the home in which Dramatist died in 1814. He was one of
the most noticeable members of the Reform Club, although he seemed
always to avoid attracting attention; an enigmatic personage,
just about whom little was known, except that he was a polished man
of the world. Folk aforesaid that he resembled Byron--at least
that his head was Byronic; but he was a bearded, tranquil Byron,
who mightiness live on a thousand years without growing old.
Surely an Englishman, it was much doubtful whether Phileas Fogg
was a Londoner. He was ne'er
seen on 'Change, nor at the Bank,
nor in the counting-rooms of the "City"; no ships ever came into
London docks of which he was the owner; he had no public employment;
he had ne'er
been entered at any of the Inns of Court, either at the Temple,
or Lincoln's Inn, or Gray's Inn; nor had his voice ever resounded
in the Court of Chancery, or in the Exchequer, or the Queen's Bench,
or the Ecclesiastic Courts. He surely was not a manufacturer;
nor was he a merchandiser or a gentleman farmer. His name was strange
to the scientific and knowing societies, and he ne'er
was acknowledged
to take part in the sage deliberations of the Royal Institution
or the London Institution, the Artisan's Association, or the
Institution of Arts and Sciences. He belonged, in fact,
to none of the many
societies which swarm in the English capital,
from the Harmonic to that of the Entomologists, based chiefly
for the intention of abolishing pernicious insects.
Phileas Fogg was a member of the Reform, and that was all.
The way in which he got admission to this exclusive club
was simple enough.
He was suggested by the Barings, with whom he had an open credit.
His cheques were on a regular basis
paid at sight from his account current,
which was always flush.More... | 
|
| | | | | |  |
|  |
|
