Sentence:  ... Pat, in another sense, had done nothing for him; Nick hadn't liked his brand of cagey camp, and had been snotty and priggish with him: so that, more shamefully still, he felt subtly <WSD>disembarrassed</WSD> by the death, since it erased the memory of his own bad grace. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  To get (someone) out of a difficult or embarrassing situation; to free (someone) from the embarrassment ("of" a situation); to relieve (someone "of" a burden, item of clothing, etc.) ("often used reflexively").