In Madeira Place

In Madeira Place is about the various soldier inhabitants of a big house in the French countryside. Excerpt: "At the supper-table, all is joy, even with the hopeless. Fidèle beams with good humor, and not infrequently is called on to describe, amid a general hush, for the benefit of some new-comer from "la belle France" the quarterly receipt of the communication from Washington: how he stays at home that day, and shaves, and waits at the door for "la poste;" how the gray-uniformed letter-carrier appears, hands out a letter "as large as that," and nods smilingly to Fidèle: he, too, fought at "la Montagne du Lookout."