Madame la Comtesse is really wrong in keeping the viper.
There are plenty of respectable and handy young women who would think themselves lucky to be taken into madame's service.

I have a cousin, for instance, who has been in the best houses--Anne couldn't hold a candle to her; if monsieur would recommend her to Madame la Comtesse--" "I can do nothing in the matter," said Wilhelm brusquely.
He turned his back upon the man and absorbed himself pointedly in his books.

Auguste stood a moment, but seeing that Wilhelm would take no further notice of him, shrugged his shoulders and left the room.
Wilhelm was surprised himself at the impression the man's information had made upon him.

Dismay, anger, and shame struggled for the mastery in his breast.

What a suffocating air he breathed in this house! How vile and underhand and insincere were the people by whom he was surrounded! But was this true that Auguste told him?
Did he not lie and slander like the rest?
Was he not doing the servant far too great an honor by letting his mind dwell on the low gossip of the servants' hall?
He felt a kind of dim revolt against his own excitement which he felt to be unworthy of him, and, under other circumstances, he really would have been too proud to allow such tale-bearing to exert the slightest influence upon his thoughts or actions.