Good Minna,
Here is Cornelius, who will take the place of a longer letter — which I couldn't possibly bring off to-day — and tell you how it goes with me, and what I purpose. Imagine it! I wrote from Paris 7 days since to this Cornelius, at Vienna, that he must be at Schott's in Mainz the evening of the 5th, when I meant to read the Meistersinger aloud for the first time. Sure enough, last evening at 7 enters Cornelius at Schott's, in spite of inundations and unheard-of travelling adventures! That will give you some notion of what I possess in Cornelius. The man's a perfect angel.
I shall answer your letter, which much rejoiced me, in a day or two. Now I require rest and firm foothold. That need alter nothing in your plan of cure at Reichenhall; but — about that shortly.
So, goodbye for to-day! I'm besieged, and only just wanted to give Peter, who is starting back for Vienna to-day, these lines to take with him. He's making a break at Dresden solely to bring you my greetings by mouth; you see what we possess in him!
Adieu, dear Mutz. Soon more and better from
Thy Richard.
Source: Richard to Minna Wagner: Letters to His First Wife, trans. William Ashton Ellis, Vol. 2 (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1909), No. 233