Within these walls

A newly married couple flees a virulent epidemic in the city and travels to his country house to begin their honeymoon; their passage through panic-stricken streets and the home’s welcoming landscape frames a portrait of domestic adjustment and social tension. The narrative traces their early married days, the household staff’s ambivalent loyalties, and encounters with neighbors and expectations, contrasting urban disorder with rural refuge. Themes include fear of contagion, social hierarchy and manners, the persistence of servile attitudes among formerly enslaved servants, and the fragile comforts of home in unsettled times.