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The Keepers of the People
A Critical Edition of the 1898 Novel
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English Edition · Branch 201 of 254
Chapter XV · The Courting of Vashti · pp. 285–300
The Keepers of the People
p. 285CHAPTER XV
THE COURTING OF VASHTI
After this uproar of war a hush seemed to fall on life in the palace. The marks of hard travel were smoothed out of Ruth’s face, her skin grew lustrous again; the restlessness which had so long tormented her, had wholly gone; and she enjoyed an untroubled, perpetual leisure in the palace gardens, reading the Books of the Wisdom of the Princes. She and Prince Ralph had fallen back into the very friendship which had prevailed between them at Quivern Court: the embrace at their meeting in the forest seemed to have stirred their lives no more than a pebble thrown into the sea. They wandered through the gardens, talking of the Varandals and the Books of the Wisdom with even, untroubled voices; it did not mar their pleasure that Althea was often with them. Each had in truth a deep patience; and the passion of each was pent by strong restraints: Ruth’s utter honesty prevented surely another outburst of it, while it acquitted her of blame for the outburst in the forest, when she had been surprised and unbalanced by the imminent peril; Prince Ralph was restrained by binding laws of hospitality. Yet that fervent embrace was ever their underthought; and if each was patient, each was assured and resolved that sooner or later their passion should have its hour. For the while, to be together after their long separation was very much.
Althea was lulled from her fear of Ruth’s rivalry: she saw no slightest gust of passion ruffle ever the smooth surface of their friendship; she surprised no light of love in their eyes. As they were thrown more and more together, her old fondness for Ruth came back to her in its old strength. She was not at peace, however; the approach of womanhood was working a change in her; she found herself lost sometimes in a dream; and fought against this new softness as against a weakness. It became her great pleasure to read the book of the Love-songs of the Varandals, which the Princes had collected for the last fifty years. It was well that the keeping of the people awoke her often: her dreams might have weakened and harmed her.
There was indeed much to do; and Prince Ralph was hard at work.
Socrates
Reading The Keepers of the People · Book II, Chapter XV · The Courting of Vashti · Book II, Chapter XV · The Courting of Vashti · pp. 285–300
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.