Dearest Minna,
If you had any idea how it goes with me! Only this instant can I tell you what is to become of me! What has kept tossing me undecided to and fro, you shall learn from my more circumstantial next letter. I've only just made out for certain that I start to-day — or to-morrow, should I be too late — for Mainz, and thence for Paris. Consequently it abides by the plan last declared to you. Write me, if you'll be so good, to Paris: 101 Rue de Grenelle St. Germ. Paris (that is: Austrian Embassy.) Give me the pleasure of good news; I need it, for my pluck's below zero. Adieu, my poor good Wife!
Thy poor, care-laden Husband, who is strictly all homeless and wretched.
Source: Richard to Minna Wagner: Letters to His First Wife, trans. William Ashton Ellis, Vol. 2 (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1909), No. 221