Pamela's editor gets the last word, and the world is that Pamela and her hubby live happily ever after. In addition, the editor presents us with lots of observations, extrapolated from Pamela's story, that he thinks the reader might find instructive.
Gee, thanks. Don't you love it when the author just tells you how you should be interpreting everything you just read? Richardson is not leaving anything to chance here—he wants to make sure we all know how to conduct ourselves when we put down the book. Point taken.