troisoiseaux

Yes, that passage totally sums up Hofmiller's character. He's a people-pleaser with a tragically limited sense of long-term consequences who has never had the chance to please anyone on such a grand scale before, so in the moment of agreeing to marry Edith he's just completely swept up with the joy of being actually IMPORTANT to someone and being able to please not just Edith but the whole Kekesfalva family in such a big way. It completely sweeps away the fact that (1) he has super mixed feelings about marrying Edith, actually, and (2) his fellow officers will think less of him if he marries her, which actually seems MUCH more important to him than his own feelings on the matter. The people-pleaser realizes that he has displeased some people!