Around the World in Eighty Days — Chapter 16 in Spanish
By Jules Verne
El "Rangoon", uno de los buques que la Compañía Peninsular y Oriental emplea para el servicio del mar de China y del Japón, era un vapor de hierro, de hélice, con el aforo en bruto de mil setecientas toneladas, y la fuerza nominal de cuatrocientos caballos. The "Rangoon"—one of the Peninsular and Oriental Company's boats plying in the Chinese and Japanese seas—was a screw steamer, built of iron, weighing about seventeen hundred and seventy tons, and with engines of four hundred horse-power. Igualaba al "Mongolia" en velocidad, pero no en comodidades. Por eso mistress Aouida no estuvo tan bien instalada como lo hubiera deseado Phileas Fogg. She was as fast, but not as well fitted up, as the "Mongolia," and Aouda was not as comfortably provided for on board of her as Phileas Fogg could have wished. Por lo demás, tratándose sólo de una travesía de tres mil quinientas millas, o sea de once a doce días, la joven no fue viajera de difícil acomodo. However, the trip from Calcutta to Hong Kong only comprised some three thousand five hundred miles, occupying from ten to twelve days, and the young woman was not difficult to please.
Durante los primeros días de la travesía, mistress Aouida contrajo mayor intimidad con Phileas Fogg. En todas ocasiones le manifestaba el más vivo reconocimiento. During the first days of the journey Aouda became better acquainted with her protector, and constantly gave evidence of her deep gratitude for what he had done. El flemático gentleman la escuchaba, en apariencia al menos, con la mayor frialdad, sin que una entonación ni un ademán revelasen la más ligera emoción. The phlegmatic gentleman listened to her, apparently at least,
with coldness, neither his voice nor his manner betraying the slightest emotion; but he seemed to be always on the watch that nothing should be wanting to Aouda's comfort. A ciertas horas acudía regularmente, si no a hablar, al menos a escucharla. He visited her regularly each day at certain hours, not so much to talk himself, as to sit and hear her talk. Cumplía con ella los deberes de urbanidad más estricta, pero con la gracia y la imprevisión de un autómata cuyos movimientos se hubiesen dispuesto para ese fin. He treated her with the strictest politeness, but with the precision of an automaton, the movements of which had been arranged for this purpose. Aouida no sabía qué pensar de ello, pero Picaporte le había explicado algo de la excéntrica personalidad de su amo. Aouda did not quite know what to make of him, though Passepartout had given her some hints of his master's eccentricity, and made her smile by telling her of the wager which was sending him round the world. Le había instruido de la apuesta que le hacía dar la vuelta al mundo. Mistress Aoulda se había sonreído; pero al fin le debía la vida, y su salvador no podía salir perdiendo en que ella lo viese al través de su reconocimiento. After all, she owed Phileas Fogg her life, and she always regarded him through the exalting medium of her gratitude.
Mistress Aouida confirmó la noticia que el guía indio había hecho de su interesante historia. Aouda confirmed the Parsee guide's narrative of her touching history. Pertenecía ella, en efecto, a esa raza que ocupa el primer lugar entre los indígenas. She did, indeed, belong to the highest of the native races of India. Varios negociantes parsis han hecho grandes fortunas en las Indias en el comercio de algodones. Uno de ellos, sir James Jejeebloy, ha sido ennoblecido por el gobierno inglés, y Aouida era pariente de ese rico personaje que habitaba en Bombay. Many of the Parsee merchants have made great fortunes there by dealing in cotton; and one of them, Sir Jametsee Jeejeebhoy, was made a baronet by the English government. Contaba ella con encontrar en Hong Kong al honorable Jejeeh, primo de sir Jejeebloy. Aouda was a relative of this great man, and it was his cousin, Jeejeeh, whom she hoped to join at Hong Kong. ¿Hallaría allí refugio y protección? No podría asegurarlo, y a eso respondía mister Fogg que no se inquietara porque todo se arreglaría matemáticamente. Whether she would find a protector in him she could not tell; but Mr. Fogg essayed to calm her anxieties, and to assure her that everything would be mathematically—he used the very word—arranged. No se sabe; pero sus hermosos ojos, límpidos como los sagrados lagos del Himalaya, se fijaban sobre los de Fogg, quien, tan intratable y tan abotonado como siempre, no parecía dispuesto a arrojarse en el referido lago. Aouda fastened her great eyes, "clear as the sacred lakes of the Himalaya," upon him; but the intractable Fogg, as reserved as ever, did not seem at all inclined to throw himself into this lake.