[...] For the rest, I hope you understood me well enough not to be offended because I asked you last autumn to avoid anything in your dealings with Minna that might excite her. At that time her letters to me were becoming more and more heated and violent, and I could only suppose that the contentious point was being discussed with her far too much. Naturally I realised that it would be difficult, or rather impossible, to evade the subject altogether, and my request to you was not meant in the least as a reproach. But I felt I could not do enough to secure calming influences for her in all quarters. A heart so utterly restless is, after all, a terrible torment. I am very sorry for her, and as I came to see more and more that it was quite impossible to work upon her by and through the reason, I recognised that the only choice was between treating her with kindly deception, avoiding the difficult subject, exercising a soothing influence, ignoring all that came from her, or—frankly and definitely leaving her to her misery. It will be plain that I could only choose the first. As far as possible I have always gone upon this basis in my letters, sometimes gravely, sometimes jokingly, and the result seems to show that it has gradually advantaged her. I do not let her lack money, plenty of money, for a really pleasant life, and have recently furnished her for the whole summer with means to live in a truly elegant and comfortable style. God grant that all this and the summer cure at Schandau may improve her condition so radically that it will be possible for me to put her in charge of my household next autumn without fear that a fresh relapse into her old state may rob me and her of all further hope!
As to myself, solitude has benefited me remarkably. Previously I often disliked it, but this time it has never oppressed my spirits. [...] I live only to finish my works. [...]
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Vol. 2, selected and ed. Wilhelm Altmann, trans. M. M. Bozman (J. M. Dent & Sons, 1927), No. 403