Diotimos Library · Literary Fiction Collection · English Edition
The Keepers of the People
A Critical Edition of the 1898 Novel
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English Edition · Branch 117 of 254
Chapter II · The Court of Varandaleel · pp. 139–149
The Keepers of the People
p. 143At last Prince Raleigh said, “I fear you will have no such refreshment from the labour of ruling the people as I had in your mother.”
“The women are leavened with a strange leaven,” said Prince Ralph. “But she loves me; and I wait for the touch of motherhood to change her. If she do not change: and I have a fear: I will train my own helper.”
They were silent again; and the old Prince watched his son yet more closely.
“Why did you not bring the other woman?” he said suddenly.
“She was already married,” said Prince Ralph.
“What of that?” said the old Prince.
“To a kinsman,” said Prince Ralph.
“Was it so?” said the old Prince; and thought for a while. Then he said, “This is not the fortune of the Princes of Varandaleel. Would she have come?”
“He was a kinsman” said Prince Ralph.
“Yes; but — she will come” said Prince Raleigh.
“You think it?” said Prince Ralph.
“I know it” said Prince Raleigh. “Did the luck ever fail us? Patience, and shuffle the cards.”
There fell another silence; and the blue smoke-wreaths writhed lazily upwards.
Prince Ralph rose; “Come and see the most beautiful thing in the world,” he said. “Come, Vashti.”
They rose, and he led the way to the right wing of the palace, where he lodged. At the further end of a great room stood an ivory couch, spread with silken cushions, and lighted by an hundred candles. At the head of it stood two mute girls, either waving gently a feather fan over a child asleep on it, a beautiful child, of a wonderful whiteness. Her white face, of the clear paleness of white rose petals, rested on fine golden hair, and little golden curls, as fine as floss silk, strayed over her white brow. Her little white hands lay half-clenched on her breast, and her little white feet, shod with golden sandals, peeped from under a golden robe, girded round her middle by a golden serpent with sapphire eyes.
Vashti and Prince Raleigh drew each a great breath of admiration at the sight of her; Vashti bent down and kissed her gently, and Prince Raleigh turned to Prince Ralph, and said, in a low voice, “Wonderful, passing all wonder; and beautiful, passing all beauty. If I were young again, by the sword-arm of Ralph, I would fight you for her!” and a smile broke through the perpetual mask of his gravity. Then his face fell grave again.
Socrates
Reading The Keepers of the People · Book II, Chapter II · The Court of Varandaleel · Book II, Chapter II · The Court of Varandaleel · pp. 139–149
Ask about a concept, passage, contradiction, or connection.
Socrates will begin with this book and its sources.About This Reading Edition
Edgar Jepson’s The Keepers of the People begins as a late-Victorian lost-kingdom romance and becomes an unsettling political argument. Ralph Falcon moves from an English country house to the hidden state of Varandaleel, where laughter, secrecy, violence, education, and the duties of rulers are tested against one another.
Historical Text
The novel was first published in London in 1898 by C. Arthur Pearson. This reading text follows the owner-supplied critical edition, whose copy-text is the Methuen Colonial Library issue of the same year digitised by the Internet Archive. The supplied editorial note records the edition’s corrections, normalisations, limits, and unresolved textual risks.
About This Edition
This English Edition preserves the complete supplied text and apparatus: the introduction, reading guide, key words, plot outline, editorial note, both books and all thirty chapters, and the end notes. Its reader branches end at paragraph boundaries, with the original chapter structure and chapter page references mapped to the 1898 printing.
Rights
Edgar Jepson’s 1898 novel is in the public domain. The introduction, reader’s guide, key words, outline, editorial note, notes, editorial arrangement, and design of the supplied edition are © 2026 Diotimos Editions.