I DO not propose to go very minutely into the details of my convent life. I remained at Dartford for several years, fairly content for the most part, though I now and then had a great desire after more freedom. I wearied of the trim grass plots, the orderly garden, and the orchard shut in from the rest of the world by high walls, and longed to find myself in the open fields, with no visible bound to my footsteps. I remembered my uncle's house in London, and wished myself back there, or with the family in their new home. For a time after their removal to Antwerp, I heard from the family. At least twice a year, a packet came with letters for me, and some valuable present for the house, of spice, or comfits, or wonderful lace, such as they know how to make in those parts. But after a time, these packets stopped coming, and for many a year, I had no news of these dear ones at all. I had one visit from my Lady Peckham during this time. She came to London on some business about her husband's estate, which could not be easily settled, as there was no absolute proof that Randall was dead. The next heir was a distant relation of Sir Edward's, who lived near London. But this gentleman was an easy-going sort of person I fancy, or perhaps he did not care about burying himself in that wild part of Somersetshire. Any how, he agreed, in consideration of a certain share of the rents of the estate, to let Lady Peckham live in the house as long as she pleased. She had brought Sir Edward a good fortune, which was settled wholly on herself, so she was very well-to-do. It seemed to me that she had altered very little. She had accepted the mantle and veil, and made the vow of perpetual widowhood, and so might be looked upon as, in some sort, a religious person as the phrase went in those times. She staid with us a month or more, and was, or professed to be, very much edified, though I think she was rather scandalized at the easiness of our rule, which was, indeed, very different from the discipline which used to be enforced at the house to which I had been first destined at Bridgewater. I do not mean to say that there was any disorder—far from it: but things went on in a comfortable, business-like fashion. There were so many services to be gone through, and they were gone through with all due gravity and decorum. We had beautiful singing, which people came from far and near to hear. We kept our fast days strictly enough as regards the eating of flesh meat, but our own stews gave us abundance of fish, and our orchard and garden supplied fruit and vegetables, so that we certainly did not suffer from our abstinence.