idle gossip.

From the Musical Festival at Sitten I ran away. It appeared to me
like a great village fair, and I did not care to take part in the
music-making. I simply bolted. No "musical festivals" of any kind
for me! I feel quite jealous because you have gone to Rotterdam.
I hope you will find time for Zurich as well. Come if you can in
the latter half of August, for then I think the Wesendoncks will
be back.

Good Lord, my head is a waste. Yesterday early I left the lake of
Geneva. Last night I spent in the stage-coach from Berne to
Lucerne. At present I am afloat on the lake of Lucerne, from the
shore of which I shall fetch my wife, who is going through a cure
of curds and whey. After that I return to Zurich, which I DARE do
only in the hope that your attack on the Hartels has succeeded.
No one can help me here; I exhausted everything to secure my
existence from last winter till now. If all goes well, I shall
continue the composition of the "Valkyrie" after August 1st.
Work, THIS work, is the ONLY thing that makes life bearable. With
the copying of the "Rhinegold" I go on in the intervals; in the
late autumn you will, I hope, have the score.

Pardon me for this confused stuff in reply to your beautiful,
cheerful letter from the Rhine. Perhaps I shall write in a better
spirit soon. I am on the point of landing at Brunnen, where you
are still remembered as "double Peps." How cheerful you were at
that time.

On board the "Stadt Zurich," on the lake of Lucerne, en vue de