Dear Friend!
I have now been enabled by the King of Bavaria to complete and produce my Nibelungen work within three years, and therefore I have been really placed in the position of being able to make punctual payment, during these 3 years, of the annual sum of 1,000 thalers for the support of my wife, to be paid in regular quarterly instalments.
As quite recently my wife has again given me cause for regarding our correspondence as very unpleasant and to me unnecessarily irritating, it's of importance to me at least not to be obliged to write her regularly. It therefore would be very desirable, if you would permit me to send the money to you each time, with the request that you remit it to my wife in my name. Unfortunately, I have no one in Dresden — besides you — whom I could expect to serve as an intelligent medium between me and my wife. Forgive me, therefore, for troubling you in the future this way, which moreover will have the additional advantage of providing me each time with an occasion for giving you news concerning myself, to which I hope you will always reply in the same way about yourself and your dear family.
However, I must already thank you for your last communication. Be assured that I agree with you fully and have not the least doubt of your kindness and most considerate friendship for me. — Above all, I thank you for your efforts to bring Madame Kriete to reason. I confess that my breath almost fails me when I see myself again and again exposed to calamities of this sort. One should first only grant me peace of mind again, so that I could bring about, and profit by, favourable conditions for the performance of my new works: if then I should be rewarded only to some extent according to my deserts, it will be a pleasant duty for me to settle every obligation of the past. You will understand that in an exceedingly liberal and friendly spirit!
Now, remain my friend, greet your dear ones, and be assured of the constant sincere and warm thanks with which I am
Your affectionate friend
Richard Wagner
21, Briennerstrasse
Source: The Letters of Richard Wagner to Anton Pusinelli, trans. and ed. Elbert Lenrow (Alfred A. Knopf, 1932), No. 37