[...] In this context, my dearest Minna, I have some news for you which I hope will not be entirely unwelcome. Listen! I have long felt that it was important to put a forceful and decisive end to the mischief that has been caused by certain idle tongues, affecting the honour of many of the parties concerned, including of course your own, and started, admittedly, by my own conspicuous departure from Zurich. I was glad that the possibility of doing so was gradually opened up to me. Last autumn Wesendonck informed me of his Guido’s death in a very touching letter; I answered him in kind, and since that time we have written to each other on occasion, and always in a friendly tone. However, it was none of this that persuaded me to settle in Lucerne, indeed, I was planning not to go near Zurich, in spite of the fact that I had mentioned to the Heims that I might visit them this summer. But then, a few days ago, I received an invitation from Wesendonck; I was to stay at his house, he would send his carriage to the station, and he gave me to understand that he was anxious to put an end to all these exaggerated and distorted reports by means of his open and friendly dealings with me. And so I accepted, travelled to Zurich last Saturday, got into Wesendonck’s carriage, spent the night at his house, and returned on Sunday afternoon, having driven that morning, again in W.’s carriage, to the Zeltweg, where I visited the Heims on my own. This was, as we both hope, a very salutary demonstration, and everyone will of course infer from it my present standing with this family; the servants are naturally all very impressed. He was very pleased and happy, and I, no less, have been relieved of a great source of embarrassment. You, too, I hope, will draw from all this the same conclusions as have helped to reassure Wesendonck. Before I leave Switzerland altogether, I think I shall accept a further invitation to go there, when a larger gathering is to be held. -
I do not suppose that I need tell you that this will not make the least difference to my own or to our mutual arrangements for the future. Everything remains just as we agreed. However, what is behind me - & behind you, too, I hope - is now all clear, and bright and plain for all to see, and there are no longer any mists & clouds to be dispersed. -
[...]
Source: Selected Letters of Richard Wagner, trans. and ed. Stewart Spencer and Barry Millington (W. W. Norton & Company, 1988), No. 239