Caleb Williams

Caleb plans to leave town since he is afraid of what Ferdinando may do and cannot imagine living life any more in disguise (391). The further he travels from town, the more relaxed and freer he feels. Caleb wants to settle down and moves to a market-town in Wales where he gets two jobs: a watchmaker, and a math teacher (392).

Caleb becomes close to a family where he works : “[T]he father [is] a shred, sensible, rational man […] his wife [is] a truly admirable and extraordinary woman” who was a “daughter of a Neapolitan nobleman […] banished from his country upon suspicion of religious and political heresy” (393); after fleeing to Wales, the nobleman caught a fever and died. His daughter, Laura, was left without a family when she was eight, but she grew up reading, drawing, singing, and learning languages. She fell in love with “the only son of her guardian” and soon became a mother (395). Laura is “delighted to converse” with Caleb on all kinds of subjects (396), and he sees her as a maternal figure in his life.

One day Laura mentions Ferdinando’s name, spooking Caleb. He finds out that her father knew Ferdinando and that she holds him in high esteem (397).