French Beer Lit - "I Just Drink A Little Beer"

I continue my plan to note when I read worthwhile passages about beer in novels.  The following passage is from French Nobel Prize winner Patrick Modiano's Honeymoon, and is a conversation between an older woman and a younger man (spoiler alert - there is no romance between the two):

"Are you going to have something to drink?" she asked.

"No."

"Don't you drink alcohol? May I have some?"

She gave me an anxious look, as if I was going to refuse my permission.

"You may," I said.

She raised her head to the maitre d'hotel.

"Well then... A beer..."

It was as if she had suddenly decided to do something shameful or forbidden.

"It stops me drinking whisky, or other kinds of alcohol... I just drink a little beer..."

She forced herself to smile.  She seem to feel ill at ease with me.

"I don't know what you think," she said, "but I've always thought it wasn't a woman's drink..."

This time her gaze expressed more than anxiety; distress, rather.  And I was so surprised that I couldn't manage to find a comforting word.  I finally said:

"I believe you are wrong... I know a lot of women who drink beer..."

"Really?  You know a lot?"

An awkward situation not made easier with beer.