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 150 of 254
Chapter VII · The Princess Agnes and Althea · pp. 191–200
The Keepers of the People
p. 199“It is wrong, O Prince,” she said presently, speaking low.
“What is wrong?” said Prince Ralph.
“This girl-child. You should be the father of sons only.”
He said nothing; and after a while, she said again, “I hate this white woman, this mother of a daughter! How do I know but that she is more to you than I? There is a woman, I know; I have seen her in a dream; but I do not think she is this mother of a daughter; her hair is strange, like a red flower. There is no such hair in this land. She is the desire of your heart, O Prince, the desire of your heart; and I hate her, I hate her.”
She spoke low, almost under her breath; but he did not doubt the hate. He raised himself on an elbow, and tried to see her face: it was but an outline in the starlight. She fell silent again; and he sank back.
“But I hate this woman more, this mother of a daughter!” she said again. “She is here; and you see her often. It may be she will take you wholly away from me.” Her voice quivered.
“Do not be foolish, child. She will not,” he said gently. “True — she is the mother of a daughter; and you have little pleasure in her, O Prince — my child shall be a son,” she said.
“Is it so, child?” he said.
“It is so, O Prince; and I am very glad,” she said; and was silent for a long while.
Then she said, half to herself, “And why not my son? If this white wife bears only daughters, why not my son?”
“Never,” said Prince Ralph.
“Surely he shall be bone of your bone, and flesh of your flesh. Have I not loved you only, O Prince?” she said.
“Your son will never speak,” said Prince Ralph.
She sprang to her feet with a fierce cry, and said, “Is it the law?”
“It is the law unchangeable,” said Prince Ralph.
She fell in a huddled heap, wailing softly, and very bitterly. He lay silent till she grew quieter; then he said compassionately, “It must be, poor child.”
After a long while her wailing ceased; she crept to his hand, kissed it humbly, and laid it on her head.
Socrates
Reading The Keepers of the People · Book II, Chapter VII · The Princess Agnes and Althea · Book II, Chapter VII · The Princess Agnes and Althea · pp. 191–200
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.