Daniel Defoe

“ With that I broke out again. “Oh! he knows it already, Amy,” says I; “he knows all! ’tis all discovered! and we are undone!” Amy was thunderstruck now indeed. “Nay,” says Amy, “if that be true we are undone indeed; but that can never be, that’s impossible, I’m sure.”
“No, no,” says I, “’tis far from impossible, for I tell you ’tis so.” And by this time being a little recovered, I told her what discourse my husband and the captain had had together, and what the captain had said. This put Amy into such a hurry that she cried, she raved, she swore and cursed like a mad thing ”

“ There was only one thing that helped me out with the Quaker, and that was the girl’s having reported how rich Mrs. Amy was grown, and that she kept her coach. Now as there might be many more Mrs. Amy’s besides mine, so it was not likely to be my Amy, because she was far from such a figure as keeping her coach; and this carried it off from the suspicions which the good, friendly Quaker might have in her head. ”

“ I know nothing but that you don’t go the voyage upon it, which I am sorry for. But you know your own affairs,” added the captain, “that’s no business of mine.”
“Well, but,” says my husband, “I must make you some satisfaction for the disappointment,” and so pulls out his money. “No, no,” says the captain, and so they fell to straining their compliments one upon another. But, in short, my spouse gave him three or four guineas, and made him take it, and so the first discourse went off again and they had no more of it. ”

“ I cannot help saying that some very good reflections offered themselves upon this head; it presently occurred, what a glorious testimony it is to the justice of Providence, and to the concern Providence has in guiding all the affairs of men (even the least as well as the greatest) , that the most secret crimes are, by the most unforeseen accidents, brought to light and discovered. ”

“ My husband, as he and I had agreed, meeting the captain of the ship, took the freedom to tell him that he was afraid he must disappoint him, for that something had fallen out which had obliged him to alter his measures, and that his family could not be ready to go time enough for him.
“I know the occasion, sir,” says the captain. “I hear your lady has got a daughter more than she expected; I give you joy of it.” “What do you mean by that?” says my spouse. “Nay, nothing,” says the captain, ”but what I hear the women tattle over the tea-table ”

“ This furnished me with an excuse to my spouse to break off the discourse for the present and call Amy down. And Amy not coming presently, I said to him, “My dear, I must run upstairs and put it off and let Amy clean it a little.” So my husband rose up too, and went into a closet where he kept his papers and books, and fetched a book out and sat down by himself to read.
Glad I was that I had got away, and up I ran to Amy, who, as it happened, was alone. “Oh, Amy!” says I, “we are all utterly undone ” ”