[...] Accept my most cordial thanks for the exceedingly kind reception accorded me in your house! Bad as the weather was outside, my two days in Mainz are all clear sunshine in my remembrance, and the Rhine now plays a promising part in my plans for the future. [...]
May I ask you to assure your esteemed husband once again of how sincerely and profoundly I feel my indebtedness to him. His wide outlook and noble mind have given him a real and significant place among the beneficent and helpful influences on my artistic creativeness. [...]
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Vol. 2, selected and ed. Wilhelm Altmann, trans. M. M. Bozman (J. M. Dent & Sons, 1927), No. 505