Well, dearest Minna:
Tichatschek is here and intends to spend his whole leave with me; he doesn't want to see anybody else but is glad to spend all day cozily with me. It is certainly my own fault that this man believes he is thus granting me a real favor: why didn't I more emphatically enlighten people of his sort about the great difference between us? I now long to have the Bülows here; I might have loaded Tichatschek upon them after all. But they really don't come before the end of the month. Thus also your worries about their accommodation were superfluous! Now may God give me the strength to survive that bitter draft too, for I also am longing for rest! I manage best in solitude; and men give me more and more pain. I could even give up the Bülows and everything else. Even Liszt need not come; now only the little and very clever Tausig helps me to get over my recent difficulty. (Incidentally his father is a very honest Bohemian, thoroughly Christian.)
From your letter today I gather that it is almost nonsensical to leave you longer taking the cure; for according to your reports about your health it seems obvious that you have overdone the cure and are exhausted. Everything which I told you about it was of course spoken to the winds, as is always the way when I give my opinion about such a thing. I let you stay there those three days supposing that you were going to rest there in that time so as not to plunge from the exhausting cure directly into the social life here. Let's wait and see first whether that kind of life will quiet rather than excite you. If the latter is the case, I shall send everybody away, as I told you, and go on a trip with you.
Now, enough of this! Let's hope for the best: may Heaven bestow on you quiet and rest, for—to tell the truth—I need it myself! Goodbye! If nothing happens, I'll write you a few lines only on Tuesday, to announce again my arrival on Thursday. Refuse any treatment except one rubdown and follow me!
Your
Richard
[Appended by Tichatschek:] Dear respected friend! What do you say to my intrusion into your home at such an unusual time? I hope you get rid of your long, lingering illness so that I may soon have the pleasure of greeting you in your charming apartment, which, in all its beauty, I have been using as a guest since yesterday. Many regards from my wife, from whom I got a letter today for my birthday.
Affectionate greetings from your
Tichatschek
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner: The Burrell Collection, ed. John N. Burk (Macmillan, 1950), No. 182