45] whom he had the misfortune to
lose within two years (in 1723), and whom he "regretted all his life."[46]
She left him with an only daughter, who later became a nun and took the
veil at the Abbaye du Tresor.

The Duke of Orleans, son of the Regent, through fondness for Marivaux,
generously met all of the expenses of her installation.

Marivaux numbered among his faithful friends, La Motte, Fontenelle,
Helvetius, Mme. de Lambert, Mme. de Tencin, Mme, de Bez, and, toward the
end of his life, Mlle. de Saint-Jean, and, had it not been for their
generous aid, he would have almost lacked the necessities of life, not to
mention the means for his charities. Through the efforts of Mme. de
Tencin, he received an annuity of three thousand _livres_ from Mme. de
Pompadour, who had the delicacy, however, to spare his pride by allowing
him to attribute the gift to the generosity of Louis XV. The chagrin,
caused by the discovery that the pension came, not from the king, but from
the favourite, is said to have hastened his death, which followed a few
months later.

This was not the only allowance that he received, for his income in this
way amounted to "some four thousand _livres_," and with this sum he could
have been quite comfortable "had he been less sensitive to the misfortunes
of others and less liberal; but he spent only fifteen hundred for his own
needs, and the rest was employed for those of others."[48] His friend
Helvetius helped to swell the sum of his annual income, but, although he
had succeeded in prevailing upon Marivaux to accept of his benevolence,
the latter had at once too much self-respect and too much respect for his
friend to feel bound for that reason to smother his own feelings and
ideas. "One day, in a dispute, he quite lost his temper with Helvetius,
who accepted this attack with the most philosophical tranquillity and
contented himself by saying, when Marivaux had departed: 'How I would have
replied to him, if I were not indebted to him for having been kind enough
to accept of my services!'"[49] A charming reply, which speaks well for
the hearts of both men. At another time, when Marivaux was ill,
Fontenelle, fearing lest he might be in need of money, brought him a
hundred _louis_, but Marivaux, deeply moved at his friend's generosity,
yet too independent to accept it, said simply: "I regard them as received;
I have made use of them, and I return them to you with gratitude." [50]

Such a character was n