Sweet Thames - Tapa dura

(Sweet Thames is set in the London of 1849. As an epidemic of cholera draws slowly nearer to the capital Joshua Jeavons, engineer, is working upon investigations for his great drain plan for London, to be presented to a competition of the newly created Metropolitan Committee for Sewers. Visiting all manner of Thames-shore sights inhabited by urchins and sewer scavengers, he works feverishly, caught by something like a vision: a London freed of rotting sewers, cleansed, reborn. Joshua's young wife, Isobella, upon whom he dotes, has been strange towards him since their recent marriage. Unpredictable of mood, she is frequently cold towards him and keeps him from her bed, claiming she needs time to grow accustomed to such things. Mere innocence of youth? There is also the matter of the anonymous letter Joshua has received)