Far from the Madding Crowd a frugal life, and a loan, he has leased and stocked a sheep farm. He falls in love with a newcomer eight years his junior, Bathsheba Everdene, a proud beauty who arrives to live with her aunt, Mrs. Hurst. Over time, Bathsheba and Gabriel grow to like each other well enough, and Bathsheba even saves his life once. However, when he makes her an unadorned offer of marriage, she refuses; she values her independence too much, and him too little. Feeling betrayed and embarrassed, Gabriel offers blunt protestations that only foster her haughtiness. After a few days, she moves to
The King Who Would Have a Beautiful Wife variants, that she had had herself skinned, and a new one had grown in its place. The sister went to get the same treatment from a barber, and died. The King Who Would Have a Beautiful Wife The King who would have a Beautiful Wife or The King Who Wanted a Beautiful Wife is an Italian fairy tale collected by Laura Gonzenbach in "Sicilianische Märchen". Thomas Crane included in his "Italian Popular Tales", and Andrew Lang, in "The Pink Fairy Book". Italo Calvino included a variant The Three Crones, from Venice, in "Italian Folktales". A king was determined to find