Ach! Ach! Ach! — You quite prodigiously good Wife! — Ach! Oh! Oh! how shall I thank you? — My, what lovely nuts they are! I've been so busy nut-eating, that I couldn't get to letter-writing until this instant. Ach, and the stockings! and the cigars! and the brush! and the knife into the bargain! No: it's really too much for a poor waterman. — Ach! you immensely good Wife! — Ach! Ach! Ach! — what am I to say to it all? — As to-day's weather is lovely beyond any conception, I was just thinking, If the whole lot of them don't come out to-day from Zurich, they've all gone crazy! Now your letter clears up the enigma. If Sulzer only would come here right out! It would be the best thing for him. —
Since you people haven't come, I must candidly admit that I almost prefer it, as I should have been unable to do much gadding about with you: a crisis has set in with me, which I hope will do me a heap of good. Though I have had a couple of days' fever and been very shaky on my legs, my head is clear, my humour fairly good, and appetite excellent; so you see it's not a case of Heavenwards yet. On the contrary, I think of making a thorough good cure; my spots are beginning to shew stronger and stronger. Only, I need quiet for the present.
— Uhlig has written: nothing of importance, and no danger for him! — Bülow's letter from Weimar was a real delight: he is doing very well there. But Liszt isn't back yet! —
Halt! I must stop: it's a quarter to 1. We've crème again to-day, because we thought you all were coming. — Now, my good, dear — bad, wicked — Wife, be sensible and visit me again with Pepsel very soon. That — be sure of it — is the greatest pleasure you can give me. — Greet the Zurich clan; the Albisbrunn brood sends greetings likewise.
Entirely Thine own R.
Source: Richard to Minna Wagner: Letters to His First Wife, trans. William Ashton Ellis, Vol. 1 (H. Grevel & Co., 1909), No. 42