Dearest Minna!
I think I'll come home as early as Thursday after all. Perhaps I can still settle the matter with Madame Erard by a simple visit; or if I attend the party in my honor on Tuesday night, I'll go on early Wednesday morning, reaching Basel in one day, and in the afternoon around two o'clock I'll be in Zürich. It will exhaust me a bit, but the aimless spending of money exhausts me too. So arrange your party—Herwegh, Semper, Wesendonck, Müller—for Thursday night. If I should stay until Saturday after all, I would announce it to you in time. The music from Dresden has not arrived yet, but (through Ollivier) everything now can be arranged without any bother to me.
Blandine is back. Yesterday I had dinner at Ollivier's, then I went to the concert with her, where the Overture was played passably well, was greatly applauded, and will be played there every day. People knew that I was there. Blandine—whom I had on my arm, as it is not possible otherwise in such a locality—naturally was considered to be my wife. Tomorrow I shall go to Erard in Passy with her, and if possible, I shall try to get rid of my obligations by that visit. In the evening I will be with the Hérolds.
Min! God greet you! Be good to me and I hope we may meet again as early as Thursday evening!
A thousand greetings from your good husband.
Please pay 100 fr. to Müller when the Viennese money arrives. (He didn't have more.) The other 100 fr. I had borrowed from Semper—which I herewith tremblingly confess to you—Semper doesn't need so badly, but you may offer it to him too.
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner: The Burrell Collection, ed. John N. Burk (Macmillan, 1950), No. 172