The Keepers of the People

3. The offer of a crown (ch. viii, pp. 77–87)

Ralph proposes to Miss Freshington on a dark terrace, offering not love but a crown, and stating the terms: she will be his consort and the mother of his sons, she will not hold the sceptre, at most she may help him rule. She accepts without hearing the terms, because she can see the crown. Afterwards she throws her arms round his neck and asks him to love her a little. He tells Lord Lisdor that he came to England a year too late — meaning Ruth.

4. The revolt of Althea (chs. ix–x, pp. 87–115)

The best comedy in the book. Althea, neglected in a London house, takes three sovereigns from her mother's purse, leaves an I.O.U. and a note about putting temptation in the servants' way, terrorises a footman with the dog, lunches at Frascati's, and comes home to find Scotland Yard in the hall. Her mother strikes her; Althea disowns her; and in the early mornings in the Park she acquires a friend, an absinthe-ruined young poet called Francis Morrel who calls her "Beautiful child!" and can say almost nothing else. Ralph, in London for his wedding, offers to take her to Fairyland and gives her a month to decide. The chapter ends with the wedding: Althea, one of the bridesmaids, stands on the steps as the carriage drives away, repeats the four lines of verse with one word altered, and tells Ruth that she ought to have been the Princess.

5. The loss of Althea (ch. xi, pp. 115–129)

On the day the steamer sails, Althea vanishes. Ralph tells Ruth on the quarter-deck that he came a year too late to win her and would be taking her now if her husband were not his kinsman; she does not deny it. London hunts for Althea for a fortnight. It is the poet who works out that two dogs went aboard the Tarantula and only one came from England, and Lord Lisdor and Ruth resolve to go to Asia and find her.

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BOOK II — IN VARANDALEEL (PP. 131–358)

6. The valley (chs. i–ii, pp. 131–150)