"It is not as if we were at home.

Then, of course, everyone would like his turn.
But here, although we are soldiers of France, we are as strangers in the land.

Here in Paris we have many acquaintances, and a welcome at most of the receptions; but that is the end of it.

It is seldom, indeed, that we are invited into the country houses of those we know.

That sort of hospitality is not the fashion in France.