I spent the afternoon in the library again, correcting the parts, and when I emerged I went into the hall where the orchestra was rehearsing Salome. Richard Strauss was present, having just arrived in Chicago, and Mary Garden as well. Garden hung on to my arm and asked me how Oranges were. 'Oranges are growing,' I told her, but Garden was already talking to someone else. 

I asked her to introduce me to Strauss, which she willingly did, recommending me as 'the famous Russian composer'. Strauss (we conversed in French, as I had forgotten my German)was absent-mindedly charming and said that when he returned to Chicago in the middle of December he would come to a performance of Oranges. He has a pleasant face, with none of the vulgarity one sometimes finds in his music.