"He seemed to think that sack and sugar might be a fault; but he didn't mention champagne." "Perhaps he felt there was no question about that," suggested Beaton, who then felt that he had not done himself justice in the sally.
"I wonder just when champagne did come in," said March.
"I know when it ought to come in," said Fulkerson.

"Before the soup!" They all laughed, and gave themselves the air of drinking champagne out of tumblers every day, as men like to do.

Dryfoos listened uneasily; he did not quite understand the allusions, though he knew what Shakespeare was, well enough; Conrad's face expressed a gentle deprecation of joking on such a subject, but he said nothing.
The talk ran on briskly through the dinner.

The young men tossed the ball back and forth; they made some wild shots, but they kept it going, and they laughed when they were hit.

The wine loosed Colonel Woodburn's tongue; he became very companionable with the young fellows; with the feeling that a literary dinner ought to have a didactic scope, he praised Scott and Addison as the only authors fit to form the minds of gentlemen.
Kendricks agreed with him, but wished to add the name of Flaubert as a master of style.