As I was returning from a walk I met Herr Wesendonck and his wife in their carriage just starting for a drive.  I noticed her troubled demeanour in contrast to the peculiarly smiling and contented expression of her husband.  I realised the position clearly when I afterwards met my wife looking wonderfully cheerful.  She held out her hand to me with great generosity, assuring me of her renewed affection.  In answer to my question, whether she had by any chance broken her promise, she said confidently that like a wise woman she had been obliged to put things into proper order.  I told her she would very probably experience some very unpleasant consequences through breaking her word.  In the first place, I thought it essential she should take steps to improve her health as we had previously arranged, and told her she had better go as soon as possible to the health resort she had been recommended at Brestenberg on the Hallwyler Lake.  We had heard wonderful accounts of the cures of heart disease which the doctor there had effected, and Minna was quite prepared to submit to his treatment.  A few days later, therefore, I took her and her parrot to the pleasantly situated and well-appointed watering-place which was about three hours distant.  Meantime, I avoided asking any questions as to what had taken place in regard to our neighbours.  When I left her at Brestenberg and took my leave she quite seemed to realise the painful seriousness of our position.  I could say very little to comfort her, except that I would try, in the interests of our future life together, to mitigate the dreaded consequences of her having broken her word.

On my return home I experienced the unpleasant effects of my wife’s conduct towards our neighbour.  In Minna’s utter misconstruction of my purely friendly relations with the young wife, whose only interest in me consisted in her solicitude for my peace of mind and well-being, she had gone so far as to threaten to inform the lady’s husband.  Frau Wesendonck felt so deeply insulted at this, as she was perfectly unconscious of having done any wrong, that she was absolutely astounded at me, and said she could not conceive how I could have led my wife into such a misunderstanding.  The outcome of this disturbance was that, thanks to the discreet mediation of our mutual friend Mme. Wille, I was absolved from any responsibility for my wife’s conduct; still, I was given to understand that henceforth it would be impossible for the injured lady to enter my house again, or indeed to continue to have any intercourse with my wife.  They did not seem to realise, and would not admit, that this would entail the giving up of my home and my removal from Zurich.  I hoped that although my relations with these good friends had been disturbed, they were not really destroyed, and that time would smooth things over.  I felt that I must look forward to an improvement in my wife’s health, when she would admit her folly, and thus be able to resume her intercourse with our neighbours in a reasonable manner.