Eponine opening up to him just makes it even more clear how unequipped he is to deal with this - his main method of making an impression on people emotionally is to simply speak truth, consequences be damned. It's in these moments where he has to measure his words that he realizes how thoroughly unguided he is.

He doesn't know what it's like, to be as she is, to have been through what she has spent years experiencing. He has his own pains, of course, but they are different ones. It's not reasonable to compare the two.

"Yet you are still here," he says, his voice uncharacteristically soft. "I can't possibly know how you feel, Eponine... but those that have called you these things no longer need be the arbiters of your destiny. There are those here that would help you, if you allow them to, and power that is yours to seize."

And what someone like Eponine would do given power, he isn't sure. Based on her actions so far, probably nothing good. Yet, she deserves the chance to try.

"'Tis possible to change. You will not be someone else... but you could be a different Eponine, shaped for a different era of her life."