Dearest Mienel,
In all haste I must tell you my intense surprise at your not having yet written me at all! Say, are you cross with me, perhaps? Have I done anything to you? Or — are you unwell? — You make me most uneasy! — Then I also wanted to tell you, I cannot get away from here till Wednesday, — I have to conduct once more on Tuesday: also the Rienzi scribbling won't be done before. — So I shall come in any case on Wednesday evening: — dress Peps in his best, and build the archlet of triumph. Do you hear? — Wednesday! I have leave then till the 15th August.
There was a very fine article on my Liebesmahl in the Leipziger Zeitung. —
I must send this letter off at once, or it won't leave till tomorrow. —
Adieu, Wife of my heart! Get well and cheerful! There'll soon be altogether with you, heart and body,
Thy Richard.
Best love!
Source: Richard to Minna Wagner: Letters to His First Wife, trans. William Ashton Ellis, Vol. 1 (H. Grevel & Co., 1909), No. 13