Will you be cross with me if I tell you I have suddenly decided at last to accept the very pressing and cordial invitations of my friends in Bordeaux? They have even sent me my travelling expenses and I accordingly set out to-morrow morning for Bordeaux. You see, I am utterly useless here now and am simply wearing myself out in worry and fruitless endeavours.
Frau Laussot is doing all she is doing for me, just so that I need do nothing against my nature and inmost inclination, to save me from quite useless and fruitless annoyance here. And, just think, she and Frau Ritter quite alone offer us a yearly income no one else is to have any claim made upon them.
Richard Wagner
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Volume 1, ed. Altmann/Hull (London: Dent, 1927), No. 169