The description of Mme. Dorsin is that of Mme. de Tencin herself, seen through the eyes of an enthusiastic friend, and she knew the art of gaining friends, and of keeping them, too.  In fact, she was never weary of doing for them, as Marivaux had reason to know as well as any of them, and, had it not been for her efforts, he would never have belonged to the French Academy.  Her judgment of the literary productions of her friends was most unprejudiced and judicious, so that whatever met with an enthusiastic reception in her salon was reasonably certain of success in the world.

After the death of Mme. de Tencin, in 1749, Marivaux frequented the mercredis of the bonne maman Geoffrin, and, through friendship for her, sustained the candidature of Marmontel for the French Academy.[24] However, he must have felt ill at ease in company with the philosophers and encylopedists who gave dignity to her salon, and, with his love of admiration, must have sighed for the days when he shone so brilliantly in the circle that surrounded Mme. de Lambert or Mme. de Tencin; and, perhaps in sheer desperation, was led to seek in the salons of the brilliant but discontented Mme. du Deffand, of that poet too highly valued by her contemporaries, Mme. du Bocage, and of the actress Mlle. Quinault cadette, that form of preciosite for which his mind was suited, and which he never found again, because he had outlived the fashion.

Marmontel, in describing the society that frequented the salon of Mme. Geoffrin, mentions d’Alembert as “the gayest, the most animated, the most amusing in his gayety,"[25] and goes on to say that Marivaux, too, “would have liked to have this playful humour; but he had in his head an affair which constantly preoccupied him and gave him an anxious air.  As he had acquired through his works the reputation of a keen and subtle wit, he considered himself obliged to constantly display that turn of mind, and was continually on the watch for ideas susceptible of contrast or analysis, in order to set them off against each other or to put them through a test.  He would agree that such a thing was true up to a certain point or under a certain aspect; but there was always some restriction, some distinction to be made, which he alone had perceived.  This labor of attention was hard for him, often painful for the others; but sometimes there resulted from it happy observations and brilliant hits.  However, by the anxiety of his glances, one could see that he was uneasy about the success that he was having or might have.  There never was, I think, a more delicate, more tender, and more apprehensive amour-propre; but, as he carefully considered that of others, they respected his, and merely pitied him for not being able to determine to be simple and natural."[26]