Dear Mietze!
You will believe we have disappeared! So I am writing to you tonight because for the first time I can be somewhat definite, now that the weather promises to be good. We have had three whole days of continued rain on the Vierwaldstätter See. We would have been back long ago if the weather had not suddenly appeared to clear up each time we had decided to return home; so we were always tempted to go on a little farther. On Friday night we were already on the way back to Lucerne when the weather became clearer again and Uhlig proposed the advance to Stans from Beckenried: there we stayed over night Saturday and descended into the Engelberg Valley in spite of rain and mist. Here in Engelberg we have sat all Sunday long, quite rainbound since morning. Tomorrow (Monday) morning we intended to return to Lucerne; but today the weather took a definite turn for the good, and we made a fine excursion. Gorgeous Alpine glow on the Titlis. So we are going to cross the Surenen tomorrow morning at five o'clock. If weather holds out, we shall see the great glacier in the Maderan Valley on Tuesday, returning on Wednesday via Schwyz by the mail coach in the afternoon at four o'clock. I am writing you all this so that you may know how things stand. I for one am terribly depressed and quite annoyed at having been so long away from home. I have a real case of homesickness; Peps's heartrending farewell is still ringing in my ears.
So, if the weather only makes it up to us, all will be well. It is indeed beautiful here, tonight I am regaining my good humor. The last few days I could have howled like a watchdog. But there was nothing to be done.
Now keep healthy, bathe properly, so that I may find you well. Don't flirt too much! I am eager to return—be assured of that!
Goodbye and behave nicely.
Besides, be glad that you were not with us. This is the sincere wish of your very melancholy
Husband
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner: The Burrell Collection, ed. John N. Burk (Macmillan, 1950), No. 105