The Champagne Standard

"The Champagne Standard" by John Mrs. Lane is a book about England's and the United States' social life and customs during the 20th century. The author makes some miscellaneous observations about two great nations.
Excerpt:
"The other evening at a charming dinner party in London, and in that intimate time which is just before the men return to the drawing room, I found myself tête-à-tête with my genial hostess. She leaned forward and said with a touch of anxiety in her pretty eyes, "Confess that I am heroic?"
"Why?" I asked, somewhat surprised.
"To give a dinner party without champagne."
It was only then that I realised that we had had excellent claret and hock instead of that fatal wine which represents, as really nothing else does, the cheap pretence which is so humorously characteristic of Modern Society."