His ears became intensely crimson, and even the clear blue of his eyes was darkened many shades by the rush of blood to his head.

His lips pouted a little, trembling as though he had been on the point of bursting into tears.

I perceived he was incapable of pronouncing a word from the excess of his humiliation.

From disappointment too--who knows?
Perhaps he looked forward to that hammering he was going to give me for rehabilitation, for appeasement?
Who can tell what relief he expected from this chance of a row?
He was naive enough to expect anything; but he had given himself away for nothing in this case.

He had been frank with himself--let alone with me--in the wild hope of arriving in that way at some effective refutation, and the stars had been ironically unpropitious.