Dear Minna,
Fear nothing! Be calm! I'm greatly suffering; yet you touched me greatly. Perhaps everything will so take shape that we can quietly await the amnesty. Even a temporary separation will scarcely be needed. Let your only care be for your health; if you recover that, and tranquillity of mind, you will alleviate this time of trial for us.
It will be the last; and perhaps enduring calm will light the evening of our life. In the worst extremity God helps, if the heart is pure and kind! —
Thy Richard.
Source: Richard to Minna Wagner: Letters to His First Wife, trans. William Ashton Ellis, Vol. 1 (H. Grevel & Co., 1909), No. 129