Character Analysis
A "light skinned" African American woman, who turns out to be the granddaughter of James Beauchamp, shows up at the hunting camp to see Roth Edmonds. She's holding a mysterious bundle. Roth has told Isaac to tell her "No" and give her an envelope stuffed with money. It turns out that she and Roth have had an affair since last year and that she had a son from Roth. The mysterious bundle is her son. The poor woman was hoping in vain that Roth would marry her, but his response is the "No" that he himself isn't decent enough to deliver. Isaac gives her the message, the envelope and a hunting horn for her son. Isaac also gives her callous and unwanted advice and tells her to go and find herself a man of her own race. She replies that Isaac must have forgotten about love—apparently she really did love Roth.
It's kind of hard to tell what kind of a character Faulkner was trying to create with this woman. She's smart and educated, and worked as a teacher. She's a northerner who moved to the South to live with some relatives. Roth is so horrible to her that it's hard to not pity her. But she knowingly engages in incest, a fact she keeps from Roth. It also seems like she didn't really think through the consequences of having the child of a man she isn't married to. Isaac's shocked by her at first, but then seems to reach a sort of understanding. Maybe that's the point: she isn't supposed to be a character about whom we can pass easy judgment.