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Around the world in eighty days

Chapter I
IN WHICH PHILEAS FOGG AND PASSEPARTOUT ACCEPT EACH OTHER, Voice Reading
THE ONE AS MASTER, THE OTHER AS MAN Voice Reading
Mr. Phileas Fogg lived, in 1872, at No. 7, Saville Row, Burlington Gardens, the house in which Sheridan died in 1814. Voice Reading
He was one of the most noticeable members of the Reform Club, though he seemed always to avoid attracting attention; an enigmatical personage, about whom little was known, except that he was a polished man of the world. Voice Reading
People said that he resembled Byron-at least that his head was Byronic; but he was a bearded, tranquil Byron, who might live on a thousand years without growing old. Voice Reading
Certainly an Englishman, it was more doubtful whether Phileas Fogg was a Londoner. Voice Reading
He was never 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 never 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 Ecclesiastical Courts. Voice Reading
He certainly was not a manufacturer; nor was he a merchant or a gentleman farmer. Voice Reading
His name was strange to the scientific and learned societies, and he never was known 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. Voice Reading
He belonged, in fact, to none of the numerous societies which swarm in the English capital, from the Harmonic to that of the Entomologists, founded mainly for the purpose of abolishing pernicious insects. Voice Reading
Phileas Fogg was a member of the Reform, and that was all. Voice Reading
The way in which he got admission to this exclusive club was simple enough. Voice Reading
He was recommended by the Barings, with whom he had an open credit. His cheques were regularly paid at sight from his account current, which was always flush. Voice Reading
Was Phileas Fogg rich? Undoubtedly. Voice Reading
But those who knew him best could not imagine how he had made his fortune, and Mr. Fogg was the last person to whom to apply for the information. Voice Reading
He was not lavish, nor, on the contrary, avaricious; for, whenever he knew that money was needed for a noble, useful, or benevolent purpose, he supplied it quietly and sometimes anonymously. Voice Reading
He was, in short, the least communicative of men. Voice Reading
He talked very little, and seemed all the more mysterious for his taciturn manner. Voice Reading
His daily habits were quite open to observation; but whatever he did was so exactly the same thing that he had always done before, that the wits of the curious were fairly puzzled. Voice Reading
Had he travelled? It was likely, for no one seemed to know the world more familiarly; there was no spot so secluded that he did not appear to have an intimate acquaintance with it. Voice Reading
He often corrected, with a few clear words, the thousand conjectures advanced by members of the club as to lost and unheard-of travellers, pointing out the true probabilities, and seeming as if gifted with a sort of second sight, so often did events justify his predictions. Voice Reading
He must have travelled everywhere, at least in the spirit. Voice Reading
It was at least certain that Phileas Fogg had not absented himself from London for many years. Voice Reading
Those who were honoured by a better acquaintance with him than the rest, declared that nobody could pretend to have ever seen him anywhere else. Voice Reading

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