"So that Sunday came, . . . three years after he had suggested to Miss Rosa that they try it first and if it was a boy and lived, they would be married. It was before daylight and he was expecting his mare to foal to the black stallion, so when he left the house that morning Judith thought he was going to the stable, . . . Then about a week later they caught the nigger, the midwife, and she told how she didn't know that Wash was there at all that dawn, when she heard the horse and then Sutpen's feet and he came in and stood over the pallet where the girl and the baby were . . . and that he jerked the riding whip toward the pallet and said, 'Well? Damn your black hide: horse or mare?' and that she told him and that he stood there for a minute . . . and then he looked at the girl on the pallet again and said, 'Well, Milly; too bad you're not a mare too. Then I could give you a decent stall in the stable' and turned and went out. . . . she just heard Sutpen say, 'Stand back, Wash. Dont you touch me': and then Wash, his voice soft and hardly loud enough to reach her: 'I'm going to tech you, Kernel': and Sutpen again: 'Stand back, Wash!' sharp now, and then she heard the whip on Wash's face but she didn't know if she heard the scythe or not . . ." (pp. 228-30)

[From Absalom, Absalom!, Chapter 7
Pagination from Vintage International Edition, 1990]