My Most Honoured Friend, weary and harassed as almost never before, I have just come home after spending the day out knocking about with Garcia, Joly, Dumersan, Meyerbeer and others, so I must heartily thank you for your invitation to go to the Italian Opera with you to-day but must postpone the pleasure for another time. For the rest, I have to-day come to know Garcia for a most amiable and helpful creature, and she has offered to assist me in any way I may ask her to do so.
Richard Wagner
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Volume 1, ed. Altmann/Hull (London: Dent, 1927), No. 47