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The Keepers of the People
A Critical Edition of the 1898 Novel
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English Edition · Branch 223 of 254
Chapter XVII · The Last Path · pp. 317–330
The Keepers of the People
p. 320“Give me a kiss on that!” said Lord Lisdor quickly: she looked fresh, and charming, and exquisite in her Varandal dress.
“I said begin at the beginning,” said Ruth severely.
Lord Lisdor with a sudden spring, caught her in his arms, kissed her, and let her go.
“You violent wretch!” cried Ruth, flushing, smiling, and smoothing her ruffled hair. “But that makes no difference. It will be much more difficult, ever so much more difficult for us both, to fall in love with one another again. I don’t believe it can be done.”
Lord Lisdor looked at her thoughtfully. “I’m not so sure,” he said. “I’m not so sure. I think I could;” and leaving her, he went slowly towards the palace.
“George! George!” she called after him with a mischievous smile, “you had better not tell Vashti of that proposal, or that kiss!”
Lord Lisdor turned, and shook his fist at her; out of sight, he laughed and said to himself, “She has left me behind, sure enough. But at any rate she refused; and I have my grievance all right.”
Ruth returned to her idle contemplation of the fountain; and presently she sighed. Matters were indeed in a tangle: she was bound to Lord Lisdor; Prince Ralph to Agnes; and years would pass before they were free. It was well that she had learned patience.
After a while Althea came out with maids bearing her ivory couch, cushions, and the Book of the Love-songs of the Varandals. They set the couch near the fountain, spread the cushions on it; and she lay down, and began to read, while two of them fanned her. A mute from the wing of the Princesses brought Ruth the letter from the Princess Agnes; she opened it; read it slowly, and after thinking a while, said, “Listen to this, Althea:” —
“The Princess Agnes presents her compliments to Lady Lisdor, and congratulates her on having secured complete freedom of intimacy with her husband by procuring the imprisonment of his wife.”
“Whose husband?” said Althea. “It is a little confused.”
“But what does it mean? What imprisonment?” said Ruth in bewilderment.
“I suppose she is confined to her wing of the palace for bad behaviour. But what a letter!” said Althea, and laughed.
“She is an impossible person,” said Ruth.
“What are you going to do?” said Althea.
Socrates
Reading The Keepers of the People · Book II, Chapter XVII · The Last Path · Book II, Chapter XVII · The Last Path · pp. 317–330
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.