His soubrettes resemble closely their mistresses, to such a degree that by exchanging roles they may readily be mistaken for them, as we have seen in _le Jeu de l'Amour et du Hasard_. Unlike those of Moliere, they are always refined and graceful, and are none the less witty. Contrary to their more cautious mistresses, they all, or nearly all, believe in love, and seek to further the marriage of the former. Lisette of _le Legs_ is an exception. In short, all of the younger women of Marivaux are the perfection of grace, beauty, delicacy, wit or artlessness, and are simply irresistible. It is only the mothers that merit our aversion. With few exceptions, notably Mme. Argante in _la Mere confidente_, he paints them "laides, vaines, imperieuses, avares, entichees de prejuges." "Il ne pare pas du moindre rayon de coquetterie leurs maussades et acariatres personnes. Il a de la peine a ne pas ceder, quand il s'agit d'elles, a la tentation de la caricature. On dirait qu'il se venge."[129] The roles of fathers, on the other hand, are treated with great affection. They are always kind and indulgent, and exercise their authority as little as possible. Their motto is that of the good Monsieur Orgon of _le Jeu de l'Amour et du Hasard_: "_Il faut etre un peu trop bon pour l'etre assez_." His _amoureux_ are less varied and less attractive than his _amoureuses_, and, while no less refined and exquisite, are less sincere, more calculating and self-interested. His valets, like his soubrettes, are more refined than those of Moliere, that is to say, are higher in the social scale, and are treated by their masters with more consideration. The changes, soon to be wrought in the old regime, are already germinating. While almost rivalling their masters in wit, they yet occupy a secondary place upon the stage, and rarely dwarf by their own cleverness, as do often those of Moliere, their master's roles.[130] "Three of these valets are real creations. Dubois of _les Fausses Confidences_, Trivelin, of _la Fausse Suivante_, Lepine of _le Legs_."[131] Trivelin is the ancestor of Beaumarchais' Figaro.[132] Marivaux has introduced into a number of his plays peasants of the cunning, calculating, Norman type, who speak a Norman patois, which may be a souvenir of his own Norman origin.