Dear Natalie,
We hear that you have left Bachmann’s, and accepted an appointment at the Hôtel de Pologne. This is most unwelcome news, and I, in particular, consider it unsuitable. If you are in need of a good home, I should like to offer you one herewith. It is with us in Zurich. Minna has become very poorly, and I am seriously concerned about her health, which is why I am anxious to make everything as easy as possible for her at home: she must no longer handle anything but always remain quiet, otherwise we shall have much to fear for her. And so I am firmly resolved to take somebody into the house who - together with a female cook - will run the house, keep everything in good order, provide work for the seamstress, oversee the laundry, in a word, do everything that Minna herself has seen to until now. But it would be quite unthinkable to take a stranger into the house at a time when you, our own relative, was forced to enter into service in an hotel. I have every confidence that - if you regard it as a matter of honour - you will be able to do everything that matters in our house. I am therefore offering you - with Minna’s approval - the said position, and under the following conditions: - you will receive from me an annual allowance of two hundred francs, and of course appropriate gifts as a member of the family. You will be given a room adjoining our bedroom, with the bed as it is. Moreover, you will be able to spend your time as you please, providing always that you maintain the house and household in the state that Minna has kept them until now.
If you agree to this, I should like you to start in the New Year at the latest: I would also ask you to hire a good servant in Leipzig or in Dresden, and bring him with you; we have already spoiled Cathrine to such an extent that she is now quite useless. Perhaps you know of a good maid: she shall be given whatever she demands; I shall send your fares immediately. You must do your best to find a good maid.
First send me an immediate reply so that I know whether I need to look elsewhere or not.
Minna sends her kind regards!
Fare you well!
Yours,
Richard W.
Source: Selected Letters of Richard Wagner, trans. and ed. Stewart Spencer and Barry Millington (W. W. Norton & Company, 1988), No. 169