DEAR FRIEND,
Your letter of to-day was doubly welcome as, besides the enclosure, it brought me your address again. [...] I beg you to give my kindest regards to Madame Szemere and to tell her how particularly sorry I am to be unable as yet to return her the money so kindly advanced to me, since there is not the least change in my situation at present. I have received no reassuring news at all from any quarter. Consequently I leave it to Madame Szemere as, unfortunately, she is so deeply involved in my circumstances, to address inquiries to Paris. Only I should prefer under all circumstances that an appearance should be maintained of my having remained in ignorance of the proposal communicated to me for indemnifying me for the loss sustained through my concerts. It was one thing for me to ask Madame Szemere, whom I held to be very wealthy and quite in a position to assist me from her own pocket, for the necessary loan which I have every prospect of being able to repay in a few years' time, but it would have been quite another to have encouraged a collection on my behalf with the object of making me a present of the sum which was lost. [...]
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Vol. 2, selected and ed. Wilhelm Altmann, trans. M. M. Bozman (J. M. Dent & Sons, 1927), No. 463