Far from the Madding Crowd thank him, he asks if she needs a shepherd. She uncovers her face and reveals herself to be none other than Bathsheba. She has recently inherited her uncle's estate and is now wealthy. Though somewhat uncomfortable, she employs him. Meanwhile, Bathsheba has a new admirer: the lonely and repressed William Boldwood. Boldwood is a prosperous farmer of about forty, whose ardour Bathsheba unwittingly awakens when – her curiosity piqued because he has never bestowed on her the customary admiring glance – she playfully sends him a valentine sealed with red wax on which she has embossed the words, "Marry me".
A Face in the Crowd (novella) A Face in the Crowd (novella) A Face in the Crowd is a novella by Stephen King and Stewart O'Nan, originally published as an e-book on August 21, 2012, as well as an audiobook, read by Craig Wasson. Stephen King and Stewart O'Nan had previously collaborated in 2004 on a non-fiction book "Faithful", chronicling the 2004 Boston Red Sox season. In "Faithful", during a discussion about watching baseball on television, King posits an idea for a story entitled "Spectators", which later evolved into "A Face in the Crowd": Later, when speaking and reading an excerpt from his work in progress