Dear sir,
If I take the liberty of troubling you with these lines, I must first and foremost rely on the great kindness with which you received me during your short stay in Paris in the late autumn of last year, when Herr Schlesinger introduced me to you.
There is, however, another circumstance that encourages me to take this step: my friend Heinrich Laube, the author, wrote to me last summer from Carlsbad that he had there made the acquaintance of one of your countrymen, who boasted of being your friend; that he had spoken to that gentleman of me and my plans, and had engaged his interest in me to such an extent that he promised of his own accord to introduce me to you, as he was about to leave for another watering-place, where he would be sure to meet you. You observe, dear sir, with what remote and uncertain contingencies I am obliged to connect my great hope; you observe how anxiously I cling to feeble possibilities in order to attain a priceless boon. Was that promise ever fulfilled, and could it have been? My eternally unlucky star almost forbids me to believe it. The question, however, I owed to myself, and all I ask at present is the honour of a yes or a no!
Richard Wagner
Source: Project Gutenberg eBook #3835, Correspondence of Wagner and Liszt — Volume 1, No. 1