You Dear Old Friend!
It is still worth something if the heart expands again for even one person! And with friendship it's like wine — the older it is, the more bracing to the heart!
First of all, then, hearty thanks for your readiness to be of help to me for the moment. If you therefore will be so good as to advance me 100 thalers at the end of this month, then I beg you to give them to my wife in my name and give her to understand that I have to face some delay in my financial affairs, but that she can be sure — through your friendly intervention — that she will not suffer from it. By the end of April, the remainder of the allowance will follow. As she has some income, in any case, from letting out rooms, I hope she will be able to get along for the present with the 100 thalers, without getting into difficulties. Give her my best regards also, and tell her she will soon hear from me again. I thank her very much for her last letter: it did me much good.
For the rest, dear Anton, I am planning to send you a detailed letter shortly, with a thorough discussion of the question of my settling down definitely in Dresden. I have reason indeed for being prudent and for giving careful consideration to such an important step in life. Therefore, I shall collect my thoughts in order to tell you what is in my heart. Of course — (this does me so much good to know!) — for this I can turn to no one better than your faithful noble self!
Therefore, in the next few days more from
Your truly grateful
Richard Wagner
Source: The Letters of Richard Wagner to Anton Pusinelli, trans. and ed. Elbert Lenrow (Alfred A. Knopf, 1932), No. 31