"God knows why. You're absolutely lovely." As is so often the case, he offers the compliment matter-of-factly. "Is it only romantic partners who cause all this trouble? I hope you've had friends who aren't so dreadful. You deserve that at the very least."

Palamedes isn't naive; he knows there are plenty of awful people in the world, and that some people bring out the worst in each other, regardless of what they're like otherwise. But what Marianne describes sounds so lonely, and he hates to think of her like that.