Honoured Sir and Friend, permit me to hail you forthwith by this familiar name, since I am already much predisposed to you by what I have heard of your amiability and probity. I have already repeatedly laid myself under obligation to you through my sister Cecilie, and the readiness with which you have undertaken a difficult matter on my behalf is an earnest that the request which is the immediate object of this letter will not be made wholly in vain.
You doubtless already know through Cecilie that I now have bold designs on Paris. Some twelve days ago, after a horrible and hazardous voyage by sailing ship, I arrived in London, spent eight ruinous days there through a mistake over my baggage, and then came by steamer to Boulogne. There I have taken the cheapest room I could find, out in the country, partly so that I may work a few more weeks on what I wish to bring to Paris completed and partly so that I may rest a little before plunging into Paris life.
May I, then, in the meantime ask you to get me a lodging in Paris, an ordinary furnished room with an alcove being quite sufficient for my wife and myself. We have our own bedding and household goods, and my wife will keep house herself and need no service except a charwoman for the roughest work.
Richard Wagner
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Volume 1, ed. Altmann/Hull (London: Dent, 1927), No. 45