while she kept up a steady stream of book and magazine work for 20 years and more after frederic's death, she also moved out of london to surrey and started a boarding house. she lived there with about half a dozen lodgers and one or two servants until the 1890s. as well as handling these responsibilities, over the years she had provided a home for a niece and nephew, and, as the eldest daughter of a sick mother, had learnt to manage household duties from a young age. her experience fitted her for writing on household management, but she had to give the impression of being the well-established mother of a family, like her competitors in the domestic advice business, and so she kept the facts of her own life vague enough to support her writing career and professional persona.