[...] I have now declined the Ritters’ subsidies once and for all. I learned from Karl, having been prompted to make enquiries following hints from you, that during the last war the Ritters suffered serious losses to the money that they had invested in Russia, and that Frau Ritter had not informed me of her difficulties only because it was precisely then that the quarrel with Karl had arisen and because she wished at all costs to avoid giving the impression that that was the reason why the subsidy had ended. This was sufficient to persuade me to address myself to Frau Ritter last November and assure her that my prospects for the coming year and for my future in general were so good that it would be unjust of me to lay any further claim on her money. I accompanied this with a word of sincere and genuinely heartfelt recognition of her uncommon generosity, for which I should never be able to thank her enough, etc. She was very moved by this and thanked me so warmly for my “kindness” and “delicacy” that I may regard the ending of this relationship as almost more beautiful than its beginning. She is an extraordinary woman, and the whole family, for all its peculiarities, remains a great and welcome exception. Do give them all my very best wishes today!
[...]
Source: Selected Letters of Richard Wagner, trans. and ed. Stewart Spencer and Barry Millington (W. W. Norton & Company, 1988), No. 237