domestics, noun
household servants; individuals paid to do household tasks

The narrator is making an ironic comment on Fogg's character. He means that Fogg is content to sit in the ship seeing nothing while he allows Passepartout to go site seeing: Passepartout will see the country, which Fogg is not interested in, ironically and metaphorically (not actually nor literally) on Fogg's behalf.

This raises the question asked in Chapter I about Fogg's origins: he knows details about every geographic location spoken of. So is he disinterested because he has no imagination or because he has seen it all before?

With his arrival at Suez, he was exactly on schedule with neither a gain in projected time nor a loss in projected time.

Fogg will notate, next to the two columns for planned and actual times, how far ahead of schedule he is or how far behind he is. If ahead, he has room to spare for unforeseen mishaps or adventures. If behind, he has to find a way to legitimately shorten his journey so as not to lose his bet.

The official seal of State and Office that authenticates and makes valid a visa or other government document.

A "seal" is a specialized design that represents the government or person using it. It is either an inked stamp pressed on a document or it may be a raised, embossed pattern pressed into the paper with an embossing clamp.

Servants of British citizens travel under the authorization of their employer's ("master's") passport.

Fogg's asks a favor because the visa is not required when a British citizen is traveling on British soil or British colonial soil. In contrast, the British Consul is required to give visa certification to foreign travelers on British colonial soil.

adjective: what it is said to be; authentic; verifiably true

This is an attempt at humor by Fix: he uses sarcasm and antithesis (opposition between things, here reality and perception) for satire against passports and for a humorous, he hopes witty, comment.

England had been issuing travel permission documents since Henry V in 1414. The documents were used as proof of identity for English citizens traveling in foreign countries. Around 1540, these documents were first referred to as passports. As the intent of passports is proof of identity, Fix is expressing his personal satirical criticism of passports.

It is interesting to note that their have been a number of world conferences on passport regulation including ones in 1920, 1963 and 1980, when international passport standardization came about through, oddly enough, the International Civil Aviation Organization.

Clues as to where the robber has fled to and, perhaps, to who the robber is.

This is an inverted way, employing negation, of saying that the consul will be interested in seeing the face of the suspected thief.

Expressions of interest are inverted in this way, approaching your interest through *negation *to say how something will not effect you, to add emphasis and to give rhetorical interest to your remarks. It also provides some emotional and psychological distance: you are not expressing personal desire such as might leave you feeling vulnerable, rather you are expressing what you will not feel so that vulnerability and disappointment both are warded off.

adjective: to late or slow in doing something or gaining something

The span of his 80 day journey beginning on the day he made the wager in the halls of the Reform Club.

The actual arrival may be sooner than planned or, in the event of adversity, later than planned. If later than planned, Fogg will be in terrible trouble and run the risk of losing his twenty thousand British Pound wager on his trip round the world in 80 days.

noun: the plan of a journey that includes, route, mode of transportation, places to stop, dates and times of departures and arrivals

The length of his journey up to this point, meaning he has used 6 and a half days and has 73 and a half days left of his 80 day journey.

noun, (plural form of memorandum): a written notation, statement or record

Fogg's travel journal in which he keeps a record of his itinerary (which includes, arrival and departure dates and times) so he can keep track of the time used and left on his 80 day journey wager.

The Mongolia is anchored in the traffic area away from the quay thus passengers and crew must come to land and return to the ship in a smaller rowboat.

Fix recognizes that Passepartout is an easier individual to figure out than Fogg is.

Frenchmen had a stereotyped reputation for being given to conversing easily and readily--for being talkative.

Fix is going to make certain that the police description does describe none other than Fogg.

The Consul expresses his doubt in the rigid dependability of police descriptions issued in bulletins, meaning "all descriptions" are in points vague and general.

This means Fogg facially and physically looks like the bank robber as described in police bulletins.

adjective: having a stoical, unemotional, inexpressive temperament

This derives from an ancient Greek theory of temperament that divided temperament types along the lines of four inner "humors."

Same as "stiffly bowed" or "unemotionally bowed."

coldly, adverb
without warmth or emotional feeling; emotionless; without affectionate feeling

The usual fee for the Consul's services in registering and validating a person's entry to his city.

A requirement of Fogg's Reform Club wager is that he be able to prove by passport visa stamps the times, days and route of his journey.

Passports (and visa stamps) are only required when permission to enter a country is required. British citizens need no permission to enter British colonies.

As a British citizen, Fogg and his servant are free to come and go in British colonies without permission or records of entry and departure.

Fix was fixated in his observation of Fogg; he couldn't stop watching him and examining his appearance and actions for signs of bank robberly behavior.

devour, verb (past tense form)
to greedily absorb with the intellect or eyes

fixated, verb
arrested in concentration; unable to break concentration on something or someone

The Consul uses a popular idiom to tell Fix that he is responsible for solving his own problems pertaining to Fogg and the expected warrant of arrest.

idiom, it's your look-out or lookout: said to tell someone that they must solve their own problems.

Fix is anxious to prevent Fogg's supposed escape (is Fogg the robber?) and wants the Consul to detain him until the requested warrant authorizing arrest arrives from the London police Commissioner.

The Consul has no legal right to withhold a passport countersigning stamped visa insignia unless the passport is fraudulent as is a forged or stolen passport.

Fix hopes the Consul will not countersign, or give the insignia stamp to, Fogg's passport for the reason that Fix believes Fogg to be the robber and that he is using his passport to escape the law.

Fix isn't really precisely clear on how his notion of escaping coupled with official stamps of arrival (i.e., visa insignias) works (so neither are we), but he suspects a scheming plan nonetheless.

Fix is expressing his philosophy of the value of passports and the misuse of them by criminals: they allow honest folks entry and they, so Fix thinks, help criminals disguise their flight from the law.

rogue, noun
a dishonest person who is without scruples (i.e., showing no moral principles)

Detective Fix is suggesting that Fogg has crafty reasons for scheming to get an unneeded passport visa countersignature, or stamped insignia, so as to throw off the suspicion and pursuit of the law.

This is a plot device that adds suspense and drama to Fogg's bet and actions (why did he thousands of British pounds in cash on hand and why did he put it all in a carpetbag?).

adjective: cunning and astute; keen, artful and crafty (a negative connotation on being astute and penetrating of insight)

Normally, when entering a foreign country, citizens of other countries must get their passports "countersigned" or, as we now say, "stamped" with an entry insignia in order to validate a legal right to be in the foreign country.

The Consul says that Fogg won't have to do that since he is a British citizen, and citizens of Britain have free entry and exit from colonized cities.

The Consul is suggesting that the suspected robber may not go to the Consulate and report his presence to the Consul (which a wise robber is most likely not to do ...).

noun: a person who is dishonest and unscrupulous but who often has likable characteristics

The man his investigation into the crime of bank theft in London leads him to suspect as the robber.

The British Consul, the British official appointed to live in a foreign city to protect the well-being and interests of British citizens visiting or staying in the city.

The office of the British official appointed to protect the interests of British citizens in a foreign country.

Concrete platform alongside or projecting into the water between ships for loading and unloading cargo.

noun: introductory statement

To speak without preamble is to instantly begin a difficult or important topic.

adjective: in the habit of something; a particular way of doing something, i.e., It was Fogg's habit not to care what foreign locales look like.

adjective: according to a strict order or procedure; according to a strict method

adjective: primary; most important,* e.g., most important stops along Fogg's journey*

verb, past participle form: to require or specify conditions, especially as in a contract or a wager (like the wager Fogg made with the Reform Club members)