[...] Moreover, my dear wife is in a perpetual state of excitement, not only over the MS. of my arrangement of the Ninth Symphony [Beethoven's] which you propose to present to her, but also over the non-arrival of that promised gift! One would have to be as set upon this wretched manuscript of mine as my dear wife is, to understand her attitude. She had quite made up her mind that I should present her with it at Christmas! So please have pity on us both!—
Otherwise all goes very well with us. I am just beginning the last act of my huge Nibelung work. [...]
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Vol. 2, selected and ed. Wilhelm Altmann, trans. M. M. Bozman (J. M. Dent & Sons, 1927), No. 650