My dear, dear Minna, how grateful I am, how can I thank you for your letter! The decisive moment had come, and your letter had to bring the decision. I held it in my hand for a long while unopened; anxiety filled my heart; if its message had been: "Dearest, I can't act otherwise, I must stay here, and therefore, much as it pains me, I can't accept your offer," those words would have quite killed me, Minna. But God in Heaven has heard me, and blessed you with tenderness, gentleness, love, and strength. In return, take me for ever and ever! Now everything, everything is all right and all is won; it needed only a firm resolution; you have made this decision; you did it out of love for me; now—leave the rest to me. Radiant joy still scatters all my planning thoughts; however, I really expected this, you had to be persuaded, it couldn't have been otherwise. Oh, how I shall love you for this, you will hear no more from me of evil distrust or scolding, I will be your lifelong knight and protector. Now listen—
I have already taken up on my own account, and without request from you, several points of my last letter which you are inquiring about now. Things stand well here, even better than you suppose. Yesterday I saw Bethmann about it; he complained about the heartless way you left him in the lurch; but I—you may blame me for this or not—tried to straighten things out. I explained it as a rash step on your part, which you, in exasperation, quickly decided upon and quickly acted upon. I told him that, if the conflict over your roles could be straightened out, you would gladly return, although you are satisfied where you are, but I frankly intimated to him that you would return rather for my sake than for his. Please write him about this, my dearest; you will lose nothing by it, for strictly speaking there is no defense for your running away. If you have been treated unjustly in the matter of your roles, then you must bring your complaint and demand your rights; but only after being refused are you justified in canceling your agreement. You might also mention that it is for my sake that you wish to return. Anyway, come back, and everything will be adjusted! What I told you yesterday about the attitude of the public toward the Grabowskys is perfectly true.
Now about your mother! My dear, you have no longer anything to fear about her attitude. We both agree. You know what I wrote to you yesterday. Well, last night Mother, Amalie, Schreiber, and I drank a toast to their betrothal and ours. Your mother is quite changed toward me; yesterday evening I explained to all three of them that you must return, that I can't live without you any longer; I am to become engaged to you, so that we may soon be married. Schreiber fell in at once, we all touched glasses, and Mother was full of joy. Now we began to joke; I greeted Schreiber as "brother-in-law"; Amalie said that it would all be charming—one day they would say, "Today we are going to the Kapellmeister's," and I retorted, "The next day we will go to the Kammersänger's!" Your mother would be the housekeeper for all of us, we would all stay together in one house—and so it went on through the evening. Oh, if you had only been there! Joy and hope revived mightily in my heart; as for your mother, she couldn't contain her laughing. Amalie said: "Well, I'll write to Minna so that she will come soon." Oh, do it soon, have done with your starring, and come back never to leave me again!
I am much too drunk with joy to answer in detail your misgivings about our income and livelihood. You mean to say, I'll have to face privations, and reproach you for it? Pfui! I feel quite differently. I don't even think of privations. I have brains and talent, and by possessing you I shall get a serious incentive to use them. By Easter much will have been decided, and we must count on luck. More of this tomorrow!
My dear angel, my good, sweet betrothed, be as happy as we are; everything will work out in our favor.
Your
Richard
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner: The Burrell Collection, ed. John N. Burk (Macmillan, 1950), No. 12