During the fortnight occupied by the Yearly Meeting, Mildred's Court
was an open house for the entertainment of Friends from all parts of the
kingdom, who would come in to midday dinner, whether formally invited or
not. On one occasion, when an American Friend, George Dilwyn, was a
guest, she commenced regular family worship, with the approval of her
husband, this now recognised duty not having been previously the
practice in the house.

Occasionally she got rest in staying at Plashet, but her life was a busy
one, and hardly favourable to spiritual advancement. At Plashet, on the
9th of seventh month (July) she wrote: "We live at home in a continual
bustle; engagement follows engagement so rapidly, day after day, week
after week, owing principally to the number of near connexions, that we
appear to live for others rather than ourselves. Our plan of sleeping
out so often I by no means like, and yet it appears impossible to
prevent it; to spend one's life in visiting and being visited
seems sad."

It is evident that the circumstances under which she began her married
life were too fatiguing for her, and to these were added the usual
domestic troubles at times with servants. All this told upon her, then
approaching her first confinement, depressing not merely her bodily
powers and natural energy, but in some degree her spiritual liveliness.
But she must attend to present duty, and when her first child, a girl,
was born, she was absorbed in the anxieties, pleasures and
responsibilities of a mother.

From the feeble state of her health, she was some time in regaining
strength enough to attend Meeting, or to resume her usual activity. She