I arranged for a phonograph and on Wednesday Noël picked me up in a rented Rolls whose chauffeur squired us to the half-block Henri Hell's in the Rue De Beaune. Our honoured host sang my praises as Noël stretched out on the vicuna couch prepared to listen, which he did with the careful intensity of intuitive laymen. We played Design (which he found "modern") and fifteen songs sung by Phyllis Curtin who he said, incredibly, was under consideration for Sail Way. Of the song he was most enthralled by Little Elegy and declared that when I make an opera of Brief Encounter, it must sound like that song.