I now supplement my letter to you of to-day, dear Minna, with the remittance of money announced in it. Here follow, accordingly, the promised 100 th.
Don't ask me how I've managed it; if the wife can contribute nothing, she strictly oughtn't to know much about the husband's burdens. Berlin has somewhat helped me this time, as it brought in something over 200 th. Oddly enough, Paris also has furnished a little, namely 25 francs tantièmes from concerts, Cafés chantants etc. Truinet saw to its payment to me, and I couldn't help laughing at this droll receipt. It always comes to very little, as it has to be divided among a mass of interested parties; nevertheless, even this small revenue, of which one has no idea at all in Germany, has something startling.
It is wonderful here now: — only the two dogs give much trouble, as the Herr Architect is frequently away, and nobody bothers about the poor beasts. The architect wanted Leo kept tied up, but I couldn't stand that. Now a little coolness seems to have arisen.
Poor Weissheimer is lying at death's door in Darmstadt, where something of his was to have been performed at a concert on Easter Sunday. This very day I received a message not to come and enquire, as his illness, an inflammation of the lungs, was at its acutest critical stage.
I've hardly gone to Mainz at all since. Almost every day I make my expedition to Wiesbaden, just merely there and back, mostly on foot all the way. I pass the Bank many a time, but have never yet prevailed upon myself to stake.
Since Weissheimer hasn't been coming, I see or speak to absolutely no one; often a longing tries to seize me, but in the end I find total solitude quite bearable, and in any case more beneficial than intercourse with unsympathetic people.
I am surprised at your never having anything to tell me of Schnorr; is he not still going to Vienna? They're expecting him at Carlsruhe also, I believe. —
There — I've fairly chatted myself out now, and must think of dinner. Be good and remember my admonition to drive to the Grosser Garten each fine morning: economise the droschke fare by a little chariness with present-giving, your ancient passion.
And now farewell! Let me hear again soon. I shall soon discover if I can come to Dresden for the 22nd May!
Kind love from
Thy Rich.
Source: Richard to Minna Wagner: Letters to His First Wife, trans. William Ashton Ellis, Vol. 2 (Charles Scribner's Sons, 1909), No. 241