Alone, Brad Buckhart returned to the hotel. He realized that he had acted in a ridiculous manner in avoiding his friends and running away from Dick and Nadia on the streets, but his feeling of shame for such folly was smothered by one of resentment and jealousy.
“I thought her different from other girls,” he muttered, as he paced the floor of his room; “but she’s just like them all—false, fickle, and giddy. She pretended to like me, but out of sight is out of mind with her. She flirted with that confounded Turk—yes, she did! That’s what got her into trouble. Her brother is just as foolish as she is. He encouraged her. I suppose they think me nothing but a rough Texan, good enough to fight for them and get them out of their troubles, but not good for anything else. Well, if I take a fancy, I can show them I’m not half as rough as they think.
“I imagine I can make a respectable appearance in refined society if I choose to try. Perhaps my family is just as good as the Budthornes. I’d rather confess to hailing from Texas than to admit that I was from Chicago. Chicago! Why, a decent white man will turn to a smoked ham in that town in less than three days! As for wild and woolly places, I declare Chicago lays way over Texas. A man is liable to be held up anywhere in Chicago in broad daylight. If he’s sandbagged and robbed, and makes a complaint to the police, he stands a fine prospect of being locked up as a vagrant. No one from Chicago can get chesty with me.”
He was perfectly serious, little realizing the humor of his observations and attitude. Although naturally broad-minded and manly, he had been “rubbed the wrong way of the fur” by Nadia’s action, and, for the time, at least, he was almost childish in his resentment.
The fact that he had this weakness, however, made his other manly qualities stand out even more clearly.
“I’ll show her how much I care!” he continued. “I’ll just hold my head up and keep out of her way. Let her go it! Let her flirt with Turks! If she does, she’ll be sorry!”
He paused. The picture of Nadia making eyes at a handsome Turkish gentleman rose before him. He fancied he was willing she should do anything she wished, but now, all at once, he realized that she could hurt him very much in case she disdained him and turned her attention in other directions.
He had been bluffing when he ran away from her, and he knew it now. As a rule he was able and willing to back up any bluff he made, but now his reason told him he would weaken immediately in case this bluff was called.
What if Nadia became offended by his ungentlemanly behavior in running away from her when she called to him and tried to overtake him? What if that one bad break of his should cause her in future to regard him with indifference or aversion?
“Oh, ginger!” he exclaimed. “I couldn’t stand that! It would drive me to suicide! I’m a chump, and I can’t help it! Dick is with her. Perhaps she’ll get smitten on him!”