Well, it's something, though it does little to break through the wall of self-deprecation she raises around herself. This seems to be how it goes. One moment she is acting as if she could do nothing wrong, and the next, she seems to believe she's the primary force of all evil in the world.

It's strange, having this conversation, given that he knows in the past he would not have suffered this sort of nonsense for even a moment. Yet, he feels more responsibility for his actions now than he ever did before.

"You have a chance in this place, Lady Eponine," he says. "For as wretched as you feel you are, you could be allowed to become something else. Does that hold no appeal to you at all?"

He certainly knows the value of starting over.