When she afterward lost a considerable part of her property, and became blind, she occupied a small dwelling in an ecclesiastical foundation in Paris, but continued to receive philosophers, poets and artists in her house; and in order to give a little more life to the conversation, she invited a young lady whose circumstances were straitened to be her companion.  This was Mademoiselle l’Espinasse.  L’Espinasse was not beautiful, but she was young, amiable, lively, and more susceptible than we in Germany are accustomed either to allow or to pardon.  Deffant, on the other hand, was witty and intelligent, but old, bitter, and withal egotistically insensible.  The boldest scoffers assembled around L’Espinasse, and there was afterward formed around her a circle of her own.  Deffant turned day into night, and night into day.  She and the Duchess of Luxembourg, who was inseparable from her, received learned distinguished personages and foreigners, from six o’clock in the evening during the greater part of the night.

The importance in which such ladies and such societies were held, not merely in France but in all Europe, may be judged of from the fact, that the breach between Deffant and her young companion was treated in some measure as a public European event.  The French minister and foreign ambassadors took part in it, and the whole literary world felt its effect.  After this breach there were two tone-giving tribunals for the guidance of public opinion in matters of literature and taste, and their decisions were circulated by letter over all Europe.  Horace Walpole, Henault, Montesquieu.  Voltaire, whose correspondence with Deffant has been published in the present century, remained true to her cause.  D’Alembert, whose correspondence with Deffant, as well as that of the Duchess of Maine, have also been published in our century, went over to L’Espinasse.  This academician, whose name and influence was next in importance to that of Voltaire, formed the nucleus of a new society in the house of L’Espinasse, and was grievously tormented by his inamorata, who pursued one plan of conquest after another when she saw one scheme of marriage after another fail of success.  It appears from the whole of the transactions and consequences connected with this breach, however surprising it may be, that this formation of a new circle in Paris for evening entertainment may be with truth compared to the institution of a new academy for the promotion of European culture and refinement.  The Duchess of Luxembourg, who continued to be a firm friend of Deffant, took upon herself to provide suitable apartments for the society, whilst the minister of the day (the Duc de Choiseul) prevailed upon the king to grant a pension of no inconsiderable amount to L’Espinasse.