Lady-friend, I feel as if I shouldn't find the frame of mind to please yourself and myself in the Willes' house next Sunday. Therefore I enclose for Frau Wille a few lines of apology — dated direct from Kissingen. Sometimes I suffer so much from my friends' cowardice, that it becomes better to help oneself without friends — at least for a while, till the power of illusion sprouts out of one's heart again, and the whole world contains naught but dear friends. That also will return: until then, please convey my best compliments. —
And kindest thanks for the still kinder letter. More about that by word of mouth. —
Hearty greeting to your house!
R. W.
Source: Richard Wagner to Mathilde Wesendonck, trans. William Ashton Ellis (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1905), No. 80