frank self-surrender

[avuitoca]

The Toad saw at once how wrongly and foolishly he had acted. He admitted his errors and his wrong-headedness and made a full apology to Rat ... and he wound up by saying, with that frank self-surrender which always disarmed his friends' criticism and won them back to his side, "Ratty! I see that I have been a headstrong and a willful Toad! Henceforth, believe me, I will be humble and submissive, and will take no action without your kind advice and approval."

-- Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows