Hilton

“ Just you take me to the mare, and let me have a few minutes with her.”
“The mare is not my property, Sam,” said Sir Hilton, laughing.
“Of course not, Sir Hilton. I forgot. What do you say, my lady? That there Jim Crow’s a good horse, and La Sylphide hasn’t the wind she had.”
“Indeed!” said Lady Tilborough.
“It’s a fact, my lady. What she wants is holding in and a waiting game, and just something as—you know, Sir Hilton—for the roosh at the last, as’ll take her in a couple o’ lengths ahead.”
“Yes, I understand,” said Sir Hilton, drily.
“You hear, my lady? I want you to win.” ”

“ He just leaned back in his chair, puffed restlessly at a cigarette, and pondered—until I thought he was never going to answer at all. And then, when the reply did come, it was spoken in another tone—as if the whole plane and angle of our conversation had been shifted. "It's as you said, Hilton.... Material things crop up at awkward moments. What chance would a penniless man approaching middle age have with a young girl of wealth and position?" ”

“ Lord Hilton, I hate you!"
"I begin to hate myself," said the young man in a low voice; "but even now, what can I do? What power have I to wrest her from the influence of that woman?"
"What power? The power of honest and generous love. Ask her to marry you."
208Lord Hilton answered with a faint, bitter laugh.
"Ask her to marry me, and, with that act, proclaim myself a beggar! I tell you, Lady Clara, there is not upon this earth a creature so dependent as a nobleman with nothing but expectations. ”

“ Just then an elderly woman saw the wagon and the sedate party it carried, and smiled so kindly that it seemed to Katy as if Topham Corners had welcomed and received them. She smiled back again as if this hospitable person were an old friend, and entirely forgot that all the eyes of Topham had been upon her.
"There, now we're coming to an elegant house that I want you to see; you'll never forget it," said John Hilton. "It's where Judge Masterson lives, the great lawyer; the handsomest house in the county, everybody says."
"Do you know him, father?" asked Susan Ellen. ”

“ As for the Resident, he looked the beau idéal of a middle-aged English gentleman, and brighter and happier than Hilton had ever seen him before; while as to the old sore, it was quite healed up; and the meeting between Hilton and Helen was just that of old friends; nothing more.
“And now about Chumbley?” said Hilton, as they sat after dinner sipping their claret in the veranda, watching the fire-flies, and listening to the plashing of boat or reptile in the placid, rapid-flowing, starlit stream. ”

“ I've seen perfectly happy and good-natured babies made cross and irritable by putting them into a four-foot-square nursery yard. The wall of wealth and aristocracy around Hilton has had somewhat the same effect upon the people that it confines. If a social barrier of any sort appears upon the horizon of my sister-in-law Edith, she is never happy until she has climbed over it. She was in the very midst of scaling that high and difficult barrier built up about Hilton by the Summer Colonists, when she married Alec. ”

“ Rose Lyndwood lifted his head; he did not look at the other man, but beyond him.
"A year ago, or nearly a year ago, Mr. Hilton, you and I met on a matter of business." The disdainful smile was now unmistakable. "You, as one of the gentlemen connected with my banking house, knew, and know, something of my affairs."
Mr. Hilton nodded, as if he heard what he had expected and was satisfied.
The Earl began to pull off his gloves slowly, loosening each finger first. He turned his eyes on Mr. Hilton, and they looked as dark as the velvet bat at the corner of his beautiful mouth. ”

“ I daren’t give him more drink.”
“Don’t hurry me,” said Sir Hilton, coolly rearranging his silk and pulling up his breeches. “I want you to understand, Jack. I’m doing this for independence, to save dear Lady T.—bless her! A good woman. Always been like a sister to me. Jolly little widow! And to make a pile for you, old man, so that you can marry her, have two children, and live happy ever after like a good boy.”
“Yes, that’s it, Hilt, old man,” cried the doctor, desperately, for the clanging of a bell on the racecourse came faintly to his ear. “Come along, then, and win. Quick!” ”

“ Lady Lisle advanced, Syd appeared from the bar with a glass of soda-water, and dashed back, regardless of his aunt, who fainted dead away.
Sir Hilton sank forward with his chest over the chair-back, and his arms hanging full length down, and a general aspect of trying to imitate a gaily-dressed Punch in the front of the show.
Then Lady Tilborough rushed in wildly.
“Where is this man?” she cried, in a passion. “Hilt! Hilt!” Then as she saw her gentleman-rider’s state of utter collapse she uttered a wild, despairing cry which brought the trainer to his office-door softly rubbing his hands. ”

“ When Hilton left the room he was apparently, in every respect, his usual self-contained self. However, it was not until the following morning that he so much as thought of the sheaf of papers lying unread in the drawer of Theodora Blake's desk.
VII Knowing that he had done everything he could to help the most important investigations get under way, Hilton turned his attention to secondary matters. He made arrangements to decondition Javo, the Number Two Oman Boss, whereupon that worthy became Javvy and promptly “bumped” the Oman who had been shadowing Karns. ”

“ Hilton said, then turned to his staff. “Okay, Sandy, go ahead.”
Outside the control room door, “Thank God you don't play poker, Jarve!” Karns gasped. “We'd all owe you all the pay we'll ever get!”
“You think it was the bluff, yes?” de Vaux asked. “Me, I think no. Name of a name of a name! I was wondering with unease what life would be like on this so-alien planet!”
“You didn't need to wonder, Tiny,” Hilton assured him. “It was in the bag. He's incapable of abandonment.”
Beverly Bell, the van der Moen twins and Temple Bells all stared at Hilton in awe; and Sandra felt much the same way. ”

“ Hilton canceled all moves aground and issued orders that no Oman was to be allowed aboard ship, then looked and listened with his staff.
The first chest contained only introductory and elementary stuff; but it was so interesting that the humans stayed overtime to finish it. Then they went back to the ship; and in the main lounge Hilton practically collapsed onto a davenport. He took out a cigarette and stared in surprise at his hand, which was shaking.
“I think I could use a drink,” he remarked.
“What, before supper?” Karns marveled. Then, “Hey, Wally! ”

“ The “at once” came faintly, for Lady Tilborough was already passing through the door.
“Phew!” whistled Sir Hilton. “By George! it sends a thrill through a man again. La Sylphide. My first old love.”
He stood motionless, staring after his visitor for a few moments, and then dashed through the opposite door.
The next moment a fishing-rod was thrust in at the window, dropped against the table, and Syd, with a creel hanging from its strap, vaulted lightly through into the room, to give vent to what sounded like the tardy echo of his uncle’s whistle. ”

“ No, sir!”
“No, dear; wait here,” cried Syd, outside. “I’ll join you again directly I’ve found him,” and Syd rushed in breathlessly.
“Who’s that?” cried Sir Hilton.
“Oh, there you are, uncle! Hooray! You look splendid. The winning colours. Hooray! I’ve got on that tenner.”
“Here, Syd,” cried Sir Hilton, catching the boy by the arm and whispering mysteriously, “can you hear the bees?”
“Hear the what?” cried the boy, staring.
“The bees; they’re coming back—swarming. Buzz—buzz—buzz! Listen! There they go!”
“Gammon, uncle. It’s the crowd on the course—swarming in thousands.” ”

“ Stand still a moment, and let them go.”
“Thousands upon thousands of them,” cried Sir Hilton. “B-r-r-r-r-r! Look how they dart about in diamonds, zig-zags, rhomboids—buzz-z!”
“Yes. How queer!” said Granton, taking the speaker’s arm again. “Let’s walk quietly out into the air. They won’t follow us out.”
“I don’t know,” cried the unfortunate man, shaking himself free and holding his hand and whip as if to guard his head. “Buzz! B-r-r-r! How they are going it! Jack, old man, someone ought to get a hive. Rub it with beer and sugar. Take the swarm, you know. Swarm of bees, you know.” ”

“ Branscome with a remembrance of the desecration of a gift which she had cherished as a holy thing. She clung to flippancy as her defence.
"Oh, no! I never sent it. I lost it somewhere, I think. Must you go?" she continued, as Hilton moved silently to the door. "I expect my husband in just now. Won't you wait and meet him?"
"How dare you?" Hilton burst out. "Is there nothing of your true self left?"
•⁠•⁠•⁠•⁠•
David Hilton's education was as yet in its infancy. This was not only his first visit to England, but, indeed, to any spot further afield than Interlaken. ”

“ You’ve got your favourite, I’ve got mine, and the man to ride her straight and square as an English gentleman should ride an English horse.”
“All right, Sir Hilton. All right, my lady. Sorry I tried to give advice gratis for nothing; only mind this, both of you, if La Sylphide breaks down or Sir Hilton here loses his nerve through being out of training, don’t you blame me.”
“Don’t be alarmed, Simpkins,” said Lady Tilborough, in a tone which made the trainer draw back a step or two. “Here, Hilton.” ”

“ It was a famous day; they even became used to seeing so many people pass. The village was full of its morning activity, and Susan Ellen gained a new respect for her father, and an increased sense of her own consequence, because even in Topham several persons knew him and called him familiarly by name. The meeting with an old man who had once been a neighbor seemed to give Mr. Hilton the greatest pleasure. The old man called to them from a house doorway as they were passing, and they all went in. ”

“ La Sylphide must come up to the scratch.”
“Oh!” groaned Sir Hilton. “Impossible. Try to put another jock on her, and she’ll murder him. You know what she is. There, pray leave me. I must do a bit of writing before I go.”
“Hilt!” cried Lady Tilborough, flushing with energy, as she sprang up and snatched her whip from the table, to swish it about and make it whistle through the air. “You make me feel as if I could lash you till you howled. Be a man. Suicide! Bah! You’ll have to die quite soon enough. ”

“ They're New York people and their place, just outside Hilton, reminds me of the castles that give distinction to so many otherwise nondescript little towns in Europe—not in age, for I can remember when the Sewalls' place was rough cow-pasture land, but in its relation to the town and the surrounding country. It's Hilton's show-place. We always point it out to strangers when we take them on their first drive. ”

“ What is life without these things? The girl loves the man: she must have him in spite of all. There was only Hilton and his wife and me at the Post, and Hilton was lame from a fall, and one arm in a sling. If the brothers followed, well, Hilton could not interfere—he was a Company's man; but for myself, as I said, I was hungry for adventure, I had an ache in my blood for something. I was tingling to the toes, my heart was thumping in my throat. All the cords of my legs were straightening as if I was in the saddle. ”

“ For the first time since the “ghastly” transformation Hilton saw that there really was a bright side and began to study it. “With most of BuSci—and part of the Navy, and selectees from Terra—it will be slightly terrific, at that!”
“And that ‘habit-forming-drug’ objection isn't insuperable, darling,” Temple said. “If the younger generations start weakening we'll fix the Omans. I wouldn't want to wipe them out entirely, but ...”
“But how do we settle priority, Doctor Hilton?” a girl called out; a tall, striking, brunette laboratory technician whose name Hilton needed a second to recall. ”

“ La Sylphide, the mare, won, and you are La Sylphide too, the pretty little girl at the big music-hall who called herself after my mare. Thank you, Miss Simpkins. I hope you won a pair of gloves.”
“Oh, dear!” cried the girl, pouting; “he don’t understand a bit. I suppose, Syd, we must wait till he comes round. But do you think it was our champagne that made him so ill? Oh, here’s dad. Daddy dear, Sir Hilton’s quite off his head still.” ”

“ Granton did not see him, his attention being taken up by the insane action of his friend, whom he once more caught by the arm.
“What’s the matter with you?” he shouted. “Are you going daft?”
“Eh? What?” cried Sir Hilton, looking at him angrily. “Nonsense! Can’t you see the little beasts?”
“D.T., by jingo!” muttered the doctor. “Why, he must have been on the drink for a week! I must get him there somehow. Here, Hilt, old man, its saddling up and weighing time. Come on. La Sylphide looks lovely, and Lady T. all anxiety about you. Rouse up, old chap.” ”

“ You’ll be able to think better when you wake up.”
“Wake up!” said Sir Hilton, musingly—“remember? Yes; something about a boy—no, a girl on a bicycle. I did, didn’t I?—talk to a girl—or see one on a bicycle—no, it was in pale blue and scarlet I did, didn’t I, Sam?”
“Yes, sir; I think you did—to my gal there.”
Sir Hilton looked in the direction in which the trainer pointed, and saw the Polar bear skin; nothing more.
“Where?” he said vacantly, as he turned his eyes back upon the trainer, who was wiping the drops again from his steaming face. “Your girl—Mary Ann Simpkins—La Sylphide?” ”

“ That wine’s bad.”
“Bad, Sir Hilton?” cried the trainer, raising his own glass to the light, sniffing at it, tasting it cautiously, and then looking again at his visitor. “Mouth must be a bit out o’ taste with the excitement. Seems to me—” He raised his glass to his lips again, took a good pull, and then drained and set it down. “Beg your pardon, Sir Hilton,” he said ”