Caroline does not give up on her efforts to forget Robert, yet she is still sad. She wants to leave her town of Briarfield and thinks about finding her mother or becoming a governess. She often walks to Hollow’s Mill to see Robert’s shadow in the window. On the way to the mill is an empty mansion called Fieldhead. One day when sitting nearby, Caroline sees Robert and Yorke pass by. At home, she tells her uncle of her intentions of becoming a governess but he dismisses her as foolish, as well as all women.

One day, Helstone informs Caroline that they are going to see a Miss Shirley Keeldar, who has recently come into the inheritance of Fieldhead. At Fieldhead, they are greeted by an older woman named Mrs. Pryor. Caroline thinks she is dressed oddly, but nevertheless likes her. Helstone, however, pretends not to hear the woman whenever she speaks. Shirley appears and introduces Mrs. Pryor as her former governess, and announces that she thinks she will be good friends with Caroline. Shirley is considered a boy’s name, and the narrator explains that Shirley was called this because her parents wanted a boy. She has been talking with her tenant, Robert, and asks the Helstones’ opinions of him as she thinks she will enter into a partnership with him.