Un gentiluomo d’inflessibile puntualità e il suo nuovo servitore

Phileas Fogg is rich, and everyone knows that. But nobody knows exactly how he became rich, not even the most informed people. And Fogg is the last man to ask about it. He does not waste money, but he is not stingy either. When someone asks for money for a noble, useful, and generous cause, he gives it quietly. Often he gives the money anonymously, without a name.

This gentleman speaks very little. It is hard to talk with him. For this reason, he seems even more mysterious. But his life is visible. People always see him in the same places. Every day he does the same things. Everything is regular, like math. So people’s imagination looks for something “beyond”, but it finds nothing.

Has Fogg travelled? Maybe yes. Nobody knows the map of the world better than him. He seems to know every place far away. Sometimes, at the club, people talk about lost or missing travellers. In the club, a thousand rumours go around, that is, many stories that are not certain. Fogg corrects them with a few words, short and clear. Then he points out the real chances. Often events prove him right: his words seem to have a “second sight”, and he travels at least in his mind.

However, one thing is certain. For many years, Fogg does not leave London. The people who know him best say it. Nobody can say: “I have seen him in another place”. They see him only on the straight street that he takes every day. It is the street from his home to the club. His only hobby is reading the newspapers. The other hobby is playing whist. Whist is a very quiet card game.

This game of silence is perfect for him. Fogg often plays and often wins. But the money he wins never goes into his bag. That money goes to his charity. It is an important sum. It is good to note this: Fogg plays to play. He does not play to win. For him, the game is a fight against a difficulty. It is a fight without movement and without effort, and this is good for his character.

Nobody knows a wife of Fogg. Nobody knows his children. This can happen even to the best people. Nobody knows even relatives of Fogg. Nobody knows friends of Fogg, and this is rarer. He lives alone in his house on Saville Row. Nobody enters that house. People never talk about the inside of the house. To serve him, one servant is enough.

Fogg has breakfast at the club. He also has dinner at the club. He always does it at exact times, like a clock. He eats in the same room and at the same table. He does not eat with other colleagues. He never invites a stranger. He goes home only to sleep, at exactly midnight. He never uses the comfortable rooms that the Reform-Club offers to the members. In 24 hours, he spends ten hours at home, to sleep or for his personal care.