After Bernice has told anyone who will listen that she intends to bob her hair, she’s horrified to be actually called out on her intentions to do so. When Otis and Marjorie publicly press her about it, the narrator uses an idiom to express Bernice's emotional response to being embarrassed:
Bernice's ears burned as she tried to think up an effectual come-back. In the face of this direct attack her imagination was paralyzed.
The idiom "burning ears" usually describes the feeling a person supposedly experiences when someone is talking about them behind their back. Someone being gossiped about might “have burning ears” around the time of the conversation. However, here, Bernice experiences the physical sensation of her ears feeling literally hot and red as Otis and Marjorie probe her about her intentions. Blood rushing to one’s ears is a common bodily response to intense embarrassment or anger. Therefore, this idiom works in two ways. Bernice’s ears are burning as a result of the things she has been saying about herself being repeated to her. When confronted with the evidence of her boasting, she’s so embarrassed that all the blood rushes to her head. She is directly facing an embarrassing situation and the unwanted consequences of her own self-directed gossip.
