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 233 of 254
Chapter XVIII · The Divorce Law of Varandaleel · pp. 331–346
The Keepers of the People
p. 338She reached out one hand, and taking his, told him with slow fingers that she would never leave him.
“But if he lets you tend me still?” said the old Prince. “Will it make you happy to marry him?”
Vashti bowed her head.
“Very good” said the old Prince, and he sighed. “On those terms I will give you Vashti. And I will do it gladly; for I would have her happy; and the best happiness comes to a woman, speaking or dumb, only through her children. You are a man, and I can trust you to see to her happiness when I am dead. To-morrow I will dissolve your marriage.”
On the morning of the morrow Lord Lisdor came into Prince Raleigh’s rooms to find him talking of the divorce with Prince Ralph. They talked of a dissolution of the marriage by mutual consent, as if it were a very simple matter indeed. But after he had heard them a while, Lord Lisdor said, “This won’t do at all. I know Ruth. She attaches an enormous importance to her pledged word. It is more than likely that she will consider herself so bound by her marriage vow that she will not be able to consent to a dissolution of the marriage.”
They looked at him, and fell thoughtful; then Prince Ralph said slowly, “I understand. It would spare her feelings, if she were given no choice in the matter.”
“Has she ever said that she was tired of you?” said Prince Raleigh.
“Yes; it was she who declared that we were tired of one another,” said Lord Lisdor.
“Very good; that is enough,” said Prince Raleigh. “In Varandaleel, if we are satisfied that a husband and wife are honestly tired of one another, and if they are not linked together by the unbreakable bond of a child, we set them free of one another. I will hold a court this afternoon; and you will ask me to annul your marriage on this ground. I know Ruth to be honest; and she will not deny that she is tired of you.”
“I think that it will be well to use all ceremony in the matter; and to issue a special decree,” said Prince Ralph.
“Yes; that will be best. She will feel all right about it then,” said Lord Lisdor.
“Above all, if she be not even asked to consent to it,” said Prince Ralph.
Socrates
Reading The Keepers of the People · Book II, Chapter XVIII · The Divorce Law of Varandaleel · Book II, Chapter XVIII · The Divorce Law of Varandaleel · pp. 331–346
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.