I did so, and got into it, and found the person to be Diderot.

He spoke of the pension with more warmth than, upon such a subject, I should have expected from a philosopher.

He did not blame me for having been unwilling to be presented to the king, but severely reproached me with my indifference about the pension.

He observed that although on my own account I might be disinterested, I ought not to be so on that of Madam Vasseur and her daughter; that it was my duty to seize every means of providing for their subsistence; and that as, after all, it could not be said I had refused the pension, he maintained I ought, since the king seemed disposed to grant it to me, to solicit and obtain it by one means or another.
Although I was obliged to him for his good wishes, I could not relish his maxims, which produced a warm dispute, the first I ever had with him.
All our disputes were of this kind, he prescribing to me what he pretended I ought to do, and I defending myself because I was of a different opinion.
It was late when we parted.

I would have taken him to supper at Madam d' Epinay's, but he refused to go; and, notwithstanding all the efforts which at different times the desire of uniting those I love induced me to make, to prevail upon him to see her, even that of conducting her to his door which he kept shut against us, he constantly refused to do it, and never spoke of her but with the utmost contempt.