My dear Friend!
I thank you for your renewed efforts with Wölfel; only I should like to beg you earnestly to attend in person the proposed conference, whether it takes place on Monday or Tuesday! However unjust it may be on my part to lay such strong claims upon your friendship for me, I should not know what to do without your assistance; for your consolation in the future, I promise you that I shall never have another house built for me, not even in Germany.
My circular, by the way, begins to bear good fruits. Among other things, I was touched to-day by the notification of a one-third patron in Austria, who wrote that he had sent Heckel two hundred thalers in order that he might become a full patron.
If a mason with a broken nose presents himself to you, with a card from me, I beg you to give him a fee of ten florins from the building fund; from the time of the corner-stone laying he has worked day after day in the building and has always impressed me favourably by his diligence and friendly attitude.
He was dismissed from work this evening and took a very decent leave.
Therefore—everything considered—remain kind to your
Ever grateful
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. 46