[...] I would have preferred not to write to you till to-morrow, because I shall then be more sure of my position than I am to-day. Yet on the other hand it is important for me to do what I can to ensure that my departure from Vienna passes off as smoothly as possible and without hostile remark, to which end I should like, through you, to ask our good friends Standhartner and [Edward] Liszt to do nothing hasty. I have already written very fully from Munich to Liszt on this point, particularly about what I wish done with the house and furniture. It is not impossible, should I get my money affairs settled, that I may be able to come myself to Vienna for a few days, pay some accounts, and, in consequence, effect an orderly removal from the house at Penzing, and make provision for the things I want kept. As I say—it is a possibility!
As regards my recent flight from Penzing, I have made a remarkable discovery about myself. Compared with the cold, bitterly indifferent mood in which I once left my homes in Dresden, Zurich and Paris, I found that this time my feelings were warmer, friendlier, sadder. Then I realised that, despite the want and anxiety endured in the Penzing house, as in the others, none but kindly and gentle impressions of the place, its men and beasts, remained with me, whereas before, the torment of my matrimonial sufferings had embittered me so that I was always glad to leave all behind. [...]
Fate has led me strangely in my flight hither. He—Dr. Wille—left a few days ago on the excursion train for Constantinople, and will not be back for five weeks. Till then I shall be alone here with his wife, and two sons aged sixteen and eighteen. Frau Wille seems destined to take a hand in my fate. She is as true as gold and unshakably my friend. Moreover, she is the most intimate and sympathetic friend of Frau Wesendonck, and—of her own sister, Frau von Bissing, of whom you have heard. These three ladies, as I see now, love me equally, only Frau von Bissing was recently so smitten with jealousy (I never guessed it!) that, till this discovery, her behaviour to me was incomprehensible! But I have been able to tell Frau Wille everything unreservedly about my real needs, my true purpose in this life, and now she understands me completely and realises that what I need is decorous peace and quiet, not any exciting relationships. I have found in her a really admirable intermediary in all quarters. We shall see, then, what these three excellent women together will accomplish under her leadership. For the present I remain here—glorious, wonderful! [...]
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Vol. 2, selected and ed. Wilhelm Altmann, trans. M. M. Bozman (J. M. Dent & Sons, 1927), No. 566