At five minutes past eight, Passepartout arrived at the local church to arrange the wedding for Monday. He had to wait twenty minutes for the priest to return home. When they finally spoke, Passepartout made a shocking discovery.
He ran out of the house without his hat, sprinting through the streets and knocking over pedestrians like a wild storm. In just three minutes, he was back at Savile Row. He crashed into Mr. Fogg's room, completely out of breath.
"Master!" he gasped. "The marriage... is impossible!"
"Why is that?" asked Mr. Fogg.
"Because tomorrow is Sunday! Today is Saturday! You made a mistake of one entire day! We arrived twenty-four hours early, but there are only ten minutes left to win the bet!"
Passepartout grabbed his master by the coat and dragged him out the door.
Fogg did not waste a single second. He jumped into a carriage and promised the driver a massive reward to go as fast as possible. The horses raced through the dark streets of London, nearly crashing into several other carts along the way.
At exactly a quarter to nine, Phileas Fogg walked through the doors of the Reform Club. He had completed his journey around the world in exactly eighty days. He had won the massive wager!
How could such an organized, mathematical man make such a huge mistake? The answer was actually quite simple.
By traveling strictly eastward, Fogg was constantly moving toward the morning sun. For every degree he crossed on the map, the days became a little bit shorter. Across the entire circumference of the earth, those short, missing minutes added up to exactly one full day. While Fogg counted eighty sunsets, the people waiting in London had only counted seventy-nine. If Passepartout’s stubborn silver watch tracked the date as well as the time, they would have realized this fact much sooner!
Phileas Fogg won his twenty thousand pounds. However, because he had spent nineteen thousand on the trip, his actual financial profit was very small. But Fogg only cared about his honor, not the money. He generously divided the remaining thousand pounds between Passepartout and Detective Fix. However, he made sure to deduct the cost of the gas light that had been burning in Passepartout's room for eighty days!
Later that evening, Mr. Fogg spoke to Aouda.
"Is our marriage still acceptable to you?" he asked calmly.
"Mr. Fogg," she replied, "I should be asking you that question. When I proposed, you were ruined. Now you are rich."
"Pardon me, madam, but my fortune belongs to you. If you had not suggested the wedding, my servant would never have gone to the priest. I would not have realized my error, and I would have lost everything."
Two days later, the beautiful wedding took place. Passepartout proudly stood beside them, smiling brighter than the sun.
The next morning, Passepartout knocked on his master's door.
"Sir! I just realized something! If we had not crossed India, we could have finished the tour in only seventy-eight days!"
"No doubt," Fogg answered. "But if we had not crossed India, I would not have saved Aouda, and she would not be my wife."
Mr. Fogg quietly closed the door.
In the end, what did the quiet gentleman truly gain from his incredible adventure? He used every form of transportation on earth, spent thousands of pounds, and survived countless dangers. But he gained no money. Instead, he brought back a charming woman who made him the happiest man in the world. And is that not worth a journey around the earth?