It must be observed that when the old wretch my brother (husband) was dead, I then freely gave my husband an account of all that affair, and of this cousin, as I had called him before, being my own son by that mistaken unhappy match. He was perfectly easy in the account, and told me he should have been as easy if the old man, as we called him, had been alive. ‘For,’ said he, ‘it was no fault of yours, nor of his; it was a mistake impossible to be prevented.’ He only reproached him with desiring me to conceal it, and to live with him as a wife, after I knew that he was my brother; that, he said, was a vile part. Thus all these difficulties were made easy, and we lived together with the greatest kindness and comfort imaginable.
We are grown old; I am come back to England, being almost seventy years of age, husband sixty-eight, having performed much more than the limited terms of my transportation; and now, notwithstanding all the fatigues and all the miseries we have both gone through, we are both of us in good heart and health. My husband remained there some time after me to settle our affairs, and at first I had intended to go back to him, but at his desire I altered that resolution, and he is come over to England also, where we resolve to spend the remainder of our years in sincere penitence for the wicked lives we have lived.
WRITTEN IN THE YEAR 1683
Steer Forth! 
This has to be Daniel Defoe’s ribald novel of “Moll Flanders”; a novel with gutsy, earthy images.
I remember having to read it for my Uni days. Amazing that a man in the late 17th century found reading popularity with such a novel – when more classical offerings were regarded as appropriate. He was educated, but without the writing finesse of John Dryden or Alexander Pope. (Thank goodness, I say!)
I always found Defoe’s insights refreshing. Amazing too, that this was the man also famed for “Robinson Crusoe”. Tha latter I always felt had some “entree” for William Golding’s “Lord of the Flies”. (Now I am rambling and raving!)
Love your blog here!
Gemma
Thank you, Gemma.
Yes, this is the ending of Defoe’s “Moll Flanders.”
You’ve obviously read and enjoyed it!
Thanks for your detailed comments.
I’ll be visiting your blog soon.