more wrong to live in one place?

[Eway]

Dear Teachers,

I read these from True Pleasures by Lucinda Holdforth.

1.
He wrote sourly: "...in my country we cannot enjoy the elegant clothes & meals & masquerades which fill your days..."
She replied: "Do you really think it’s more wrong to live in one place than another, or wrong to go to fancy dress parties?"

I don't understand the former part of her reply. What does it have to to with living in one place or another?

2.
There is no pulse so sure of the state of a nation as its characteristic art product which has nothing to do with its material life. And so when hats in Paris are lovely and french and everywhere then France is alright.

I don't understand the first sentence at all...

[Raymott]

Originally Posted by Eway

Dear Teachers,

I read these from True Pleasures by Lucinda Holdforth.

1.
He wrote sourly: "...in my country we cannot enjoy the elegant clothes & meals & masquerades which fill your days..."
She replied: "Do you really think it’s more wrong to live in one place than another, or wrong to go to fancy dress parties?"

I don't understand the former part of her reply. What does it have to to with living in one place or another?

She is being evasive. He is actually criticising her self-indulgent way of life but, to be polite, he attributes it to the difference in their country's relative affluence. She has taken advantage of the words he used in criticising her frivolity by rationalising that it's not her fault she was born into an affluent society. In the second part of her sentence, she is becoming more honest.