Tell me, my worthy friend and companion, what is the matter with you? You are silent and silent, and moreover one hears nothing from Berlin about you?
In the meantime I was obliged to arrive at an understanding with Neumann, and it has now developed that the building cannot be commenced before the end of March next year; by the way, he was ready to vouch that you could be ready by that time.
In the meantime Bayreuth has done a great deal—gratuitous building site, etc. Baden also made a similar offer. The telegraph wires were congested in behalf of Darmstadt—in fact, with such marvellous things of all sorts, which I could only explain to myself by the fact that they proposed to make an arrangement with me in order to be able to rebuild their theatre which was burned down (!!) And still you remain silent!
May your silence not signify that your zeal for my undertaking has grown cold! . . . Without you no Nibelung—you must know that!
Cordial greetings from
Yours faithfully,
Richard Wagner.
Source: The Story of Bayreuth as Told in the Bayreuth Letters of Richard Wagner, trans. and ed. Caroline V. Kerr (Small, Maynard and Company, 1912), No. 9