After his separation from Minna, Richard felt terribly lonely:

In the spring of 1862, Richard made the acquaintance of the 29-year-old Mathilde Maier at a soirée held by his publisher Schott in Mainz. They were apparently introduced by Wendelin Weissheimer, a friend of her family who also knew Wagner well. He told Wagner in advance about her, and later described their meeting in boorish terms: “When she came, he was sitting in one of the side alcoves of the salon that were cordoned off by heavy curtains. I led her there, pulled back the curtain a little and said: ‘Herr Wagner— Fräulein Maier,’ then I pushed pretty Mathilde inside and closed the curtain behind her again.” Mathilde, however, recalled their encounter rather differently, and in a way that sounds more credible. She wrote that Wagner had been depressed and so did not want to be introduced to anyone. He had actually already left the gathering, but had returned because of a storm raging outside. He went to a room adjoining the party, where Weissheimer and a neighbor from Mathilde’s table took turns to keep him company. Mathilde claimed that she had passed a message to Wagner in jest that she was expecting him to join her. He agreed, and indeed went to sit at her table.

Richard enjoyed the admiration Mathilde bestowed on him, and he saw in her a possible future life partner—one who could manage his household, of course, but who could also help to fulfill his emotional needs and share in his intellectual life. His letters to her do not exude the ecstatic rapture that we find in his correspondence with her namesake Wesendonck, but Wagner would have dearly liked to have this other Mathilde as a lover and even as a wife—if only Minna were no longer on the scene.