“In Victorian times, a servant dismissed without a reference would likely starve. To stay alive, the maids and footmen submit to any punishment and degradation by their employers and the upper servants. The butler seizes his opportunity to use the Mistress’s own masochism against her. Ably assisted by a girl from the charity school, he takes control of the household and the mistress of the house, though most women would have the butler executed for this, to Lady Rosalind, it is a dream come true. Having relocated to a repressive European state, the new Master assists in the brutal suppression of revolution, ensuring that the ruling class maintains rigid discipline in all houses and workplaces.”