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 159 of 254
Chapter IX · Althea’s Tiger · pp. 212–219
The Keepers of the People
p. 214“It shall be so, O Prince,” said Latchimi, divining his meaning.
Her baby was a boy, as she had foretold; and her immense joy in him was but little dashed when, like all the other harem-born children of the Princes, he was made dumb: for Prince Ralph promised her that if he grew up wise and strong, he should be made Master of the Mutes: besides, though he had her dark eyes, he had a pink skin that would grow white like his father’s. Althea was amazed to find, on her coming to the Pavilion of Wonderful Delights, into which she had been unable for many weeks to gain an entrance, Latchimi in all the tremulous, joyful ecstasy of a young mother; and watched her care of the child, and her perpetual play with it, with a grave curiosity, taking it a little ill that it should absorb so much of its mother’s fondness. She was well aware that Prince Ralph was the father of it; she saw nothing strange in it; and once or twice she laughed to herself at the thought of the Princess Agnes, and her rage if she should learn of it.
The Princess Agnes might have learned, for she knew now the language of the mutes; but they were too well-trained to tell her, even though they disliked her. She had at last learned also the Varandal tongue; and her set purpose of restoring her child to its rights, and broadening the life of her Eastern sisters on the higher plane, had not weakened: it had rather grown an obsession, a fixed idea. Her plan was now formed: she would contrive to communicate with two or three, or even one, Varandal woman, and imparting to them her glorious message, and inspiring into them a passion for these new ideals, make them a leaven which should leaven all the women of Varandaleel. She had learned patience; and was watching carefully for a chance of carrying out her plan, for a means of communicating with the world without. Now and again she was shaken by brief fits of revived passion for Prince Ralph; but for the most part she hated him; and it was a joy to her to picture him pining for her embraces.
Socrates
Reading The Keepers of the People · Book II, Chapter IX · Althea’s Tiger · Book II, Chapter IX · Althea’s Tiger · pp. 212–219
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.