Room Wanted (Brooklyn Heights)

Then I thought of my last place, of Monsieur Jean, the valet, so distinguished with his black side-whiskers and his white skin, for which he cared as if he were a woman. Ah! he was such a handsome fellow, Monsieur Jean, so gay, so nice, so delicate, so artful, when at night he read aloud to us from the "Fin de Siecle" or told us salacious and touching stories, or familiarized us with the contents of Monsieur's letters. Things have changed today. How did I ever come to get stranded here, among such people and far from everything that I like?"
                                                                    from A Chambermaid's Diary by Octave Mirbeau