Dearest Minna,
Only 2 words to-day: I'm in the last throes of my work now, and expect to have finished by Saturday.
Yesterday I laughed like a goblin for the first time for ever so long. Boom is here on a visit, also Herr Dräseke, a young composer who wrote from Coburg begging my permission to visit me. Neither of them is allowed to come until 6 p.m., after my meal, and yesterday I took them somewhat late in the evening for a long walk through a mountain wood —: Boom wheedled wine from a peasant, and wasn't to be stirred from the spot; so it became a case of finding our way home in the dark. A madder vagary I've never gone through: a thicket of trees, not a glimmer of light, criss-cross paths, many of them very steep à la Uetli. What a shouting and swearing! At one point Dräseke called out, to the left of me: I was leading them all wrong, that couldn't be the way; to my right Boom cried the same. A match had to be struck —: when, behold you, I was on quite a good and level path, but Dräseke stuck sideways in a swamp, and Boom kicking his heels above both of our heads on a bush-clad slope. It was too funny! —
I just wanted to report you this adventure quick; it still sets me laughing whenever I think of it. — Boom sends you his very best regards; he is very well!
Child, I won't hear of your going to Petersburg; on that another day. Only patience, we are sure to manage without Russia yet. — My head is reeling, and how I shall feel by next Sunday I know not; between this and then I'll write again and properly. Sunday week I expect to be in Paris; but about all that next time. For to-day merely a charmant salute and best thanks for your letter. May bon Dieu present you with the rain I've had here off and on! Otherwise you seem doing tolerably, don't you? Be of good cheer, and trust in better times! Farewell, dearest old woman! Kind regards to the beasties and Nette.
Thy over-diligent Husband.
Source: Richard to Minna Wagner: Letters to His First Wife, trans. William Ashton Ellis, Vol. 2 (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1909), No. 183