sorrow:

"You are too happy in having a daughter who has no memory; she will
not be able to make citations."

That her society was sought by very good men is evidenced by the grave
theologians who found her companionship pleasant, perhaps salutary. A
celebrated Jesuit who did not scruple to find entertainment in her
social circle, undertook to combat her philosophy and show her the
truth from his point of view, but she came so near converting him to
her tenets that he abandoned the contest remarking with a laugh:

"Well, well, Mademoiselle, while waiting to be convinced that you are
in error, offer up to God your unbelief." Rousseau has converted this
incident into an epigram.

The grave and learned clergy of Port Royal also undertook the labor of
converting her, but their labor was in vain.

"You know," she told Fontenelle, "what use I make of my body? Well,
then, it would be easier for me to obtain a good price for my soul,
for the Jansenists and Molinists are engaged in a competition of
bidding for it."

She was not bigoted in the least, as the following incident will show:
One of her friends refused to send for a priest when in extremis, but
Ninon brought one to his bedside, and as the clergyman, knowing the
scepticism of the dying sinner, hesitated to exercise his functions,
she encouraged him to do his duty: