He is not used to saying anything nice to anyone. And he is used to being depreciative of everybody. I am not sure he really meant to be paying her a compliment, he was just his usual fragile-ego’ed, judgmental self, but there was love and adoration inside him, and one thing more that he is is honest. (Almost always, more than the average person, and not taking into consideration that he is lying to himself about what love and attraction is).

But it’s so funny, this stuffed-up, arrogant man, saying “You are not bad to look at” + “today, where I see more of your face, more so than ever” + also, in so many words “I always see you and notice you” and “I could recognize you everywhere, in any place”.
I’ve just seen the first episode again, and I am gonna kill the writers if they let any of our mains die because “The Matchmaker’s spouse’s unvariably have short lives”.
I imagine having lost a spouse give them the longing that makes them recognize love, as opposed to them having the ability and that somehow makes their spouses die.
And maybe, if they team up again for life (maybe not married, since that seems hard to achieve!) they lose that sensitivity, but keep their lives?
***
I suddenly imagine an ending where *she* as some reward gets to remarry any single man she wants(who says yes) and she frees our anti-hero from his golden prison.

Oh, and I was going to say: It’s not so much a backhanded compliment as an … forhanded insult!
He starts out by confirming her self-depreciation that “I look bland without make-up” by saying “I am glad you are aware of that” and *then* goes on to say she is “not bad to look at”.
A backhanded compliment would be the other way round … MOre like “You shouldn’t say that, dear. Those layers of flaking makeup doesn’t really help, anyway”, just formulated in a more elegant, mean, Jane Austen-villainess way.