Natalie must go, there's nothing else for it. Rather put up with anything than with this everlasting hourly-recurring provocation which is bad for you and absolutely embitters my life. It is totally impossible to accustom her to be with us, and it would be a misfortune for her as well as for us if she were to remain longer. I cannot tell you how our home life is ruined for me by this perpetual annoyance, the results of which I partly see in you and partly feel myself. I can no longer bear this eternal scolding, for which, unfortunately, there is perpetual reason; you are injuring your health by it and Natalie is being hardened by it and estranged from us. God knows what her future is to be, as she is so utterly incapable in household duties. But one thing I am sure of - that she will get on better and be herself more contented under other social conditions, as at Zwickau perhaps. All the same she is not to be abandoned by us and I accordingly pledge myself to pay her permanently the 100 frs. quarterly which your good parents used to receive. This shall be absolutely fixed, and in this way, I think, she will be a burden to no one, and even the Trogers will certainly be willing to take her into their household on these terms. I beg you to make it your chief business now to settle this affair and, if possible, get rid of her before I return, for I swear to you that this unrest and annoyance at home is a terrible strain upon me. If my circumstances improve at all - to which end I shall devise means - we shall no doubt soon find a suitable young person to take the place we intended for Natalie.
You might as well begin now to think about it and I am sure you will soon find the right person and that any capable girl might congratulate herself on stepping into so pleasant a relationship as might have been Natalie's if she had only possessed some qualifications for it. Well, now, you know my opinion!
Richard Wagner
Source: Letters of Richard Wagner, Volume 1, ed. Altmann/Hull (London: Dent, 1927), No. 302