Dear Friend!
One cannot be too cautious! Again it has happened that I quite forgot that the person you recommended was your brother-in-law, and thus I was guilty—unintentionally—of giving you rather rude advice about a man who is related to you!
But truly, dear friend, so many questions like this come up, and as I am now always excited and engrossed with some subject, I become confused and indignant.
By the way, there is still plenty of time for the decorations! I still need two months more for my own work; then I shall look about me to the right and left in Germany, and certainly I shall also come to you in Mannheim, and God will take care of the rest.
Retain your friendship for me, and that will suffice at present for
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. 31