The young conductor Désormière came to see me go through the Third Piano Concerto, after which we went together to rehearse at Princesse Polignac's with a reduced orchestra of thirty-two players. What this actually meant was that the strings were cut down, but the Princesse proudly proclaimed that for her I had especially arranged the Concerto for a small ensemble. She has a gigantic mansion - a palace, of which I should not like to be the owner. The huge corps of footmen was own its own enough to make one feel queasy. Désormière had made great efforts to get to grips with the orchestration of the Concerto. Listening to the rehearsal in a corner of the hall was a group of rather ordinarily dressed ladies, whose presence irritated me. Later the hostess appeared and presented me to them. Every single one of them was a duchess.