“Ninon had illustrious friends of all sorts, and showed such wit and tact that she never failed to keep them in good humour with each other; or at all events free of petty differences. Her friends were of the most refined and mentally gifted of the people of the Court; so that it was esteemed very desirable to mingle with them in her salon. There was never any gaming, nor loud laughter, nor disputing, nor religious or political discussion, but much flow of wit, and conversing on topics new and old, subjects of sentiment or of gallantry, but these never transgressing the bounds of good taste. All was delicate, graceful, well-balanced, and furnished themes which she was well able to render full of interest from her stores of memories of so many past years. The consideration she had acquired, the number and distinction of her friends and acquaintance, continued to be her attraction when the charm of her beauty had faded. She knew all about the intrigues of the present Court, as of the old, serious and otherwise. Her conversation was charming, disinterested, frank, guarded, and accurate at every point, and almost to a weakness blameless and pure. She frequently assisted her friends with money, and would enter for them into important negotiations, and ever faithfully guarded money and secrets entrusted to her keeping. All these things won for her a repute and respect of the most marvellous kind.” Such, on the testimony of the Marquis de la Fare and of St Simon, was the Ninon de L’Enclos of the closing years of her life and of the century. She herself records, with pardonable pride, that “when the great Condé used to meet her out driving, he would descend from his carriage, and cause the window of hers to be let down, that he might offer her his compliments.” It has been said that Paris no longer had any salon except hers where people of wit and breeding and celebrity forgathered. There came Racine, her near neighbour, Boileau, Fontenelle, la Fontaine, Huydens, Bussy Rabutin, Charleval, Montreuil, la Fare, Benserade, Desmarets, Quinault, La Bruyère, and with them many of the prominent men and women of the Court. Thither also came frequently Fénelon, and it was in Ninon’s salon that his relative, Madame Guyon, first expounded her doctrine of Quietism.