A gust of anger rose within him that he should be the cause of those tears.
"Damn!" he said, and tried to rise.
"Oh! are you better ?" Her lips quivered pitifully.
"Yes.

What happened?
Did I faint ?" "Drink this." She held a cup to his mouth and he obediently strove to swallow the contents.

It was champagne.

After the first spasm of terror, and when the application of water to his face failed to restore consciousness, Iris had knocked the head off the bottle of champagne.
He quickly revived.

Nature had only given him a warning that he was overdrawing his resources.