Downstairs, a little later, in the drawing room, the coda of the party was unwinding, and Gerald opening new bottles of champagne as though he made no distinction between the boring drunks who "sat," and the knowing few of the inner circle, gathered round the empty marble fireplace.
2004, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 9, in The Line of Beauty […], 1st US edition, New York, N.Y.: Bloomsbury Publishing