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 234 of 254
Chapter XVIII · The Divorce Law of Varandaleel · pp. 331–346
The Keepers of the People
p. 340“Very good. She shall have no say in the matter,” said Prince Raleigh.
Early in the afternoon an officer of the guard brought to Ruth a written summons bidding her appear before the High Court of Justice of Varandaleel in an hour. She was amazed, and not a little frightened by it; she spent a while cudgelling her brains for some transgression against the law of the land of which she might unwittingly have been guilty; she spent a while in a vain search for Althea and Prince Ralph to learn from them what it might mean; then her womanly instinct led her to attire herself in her finest robes, and dress her hair as best became her beauty. She bade two of her maids accompany her; and coming to the door of the wing, found an escort of a captain of the guard and ten of his men awaiting her. She came into the hall in a great uneasiness. Her escort led her to a chair; and she looked round on a throng of very serious faces.
Prince Raleigh sat on his throne, crowned, the flame-coloured mantle hanging from his shoulders. To the right of the throne sat Prince Ralph, his eyes fixed on the floor in a sombre, unswerving gaze. At a table sat six secretaries ready to write. In a chair facing her sat Lord Lisdor, tugging at his moustache. Colonel Sayers and Dr. Brand stood among a group of the chief officers of State; and a hundred men of the guard were drawn up, three deep, all the length of the hall. All were silent; and she began to tremble. She had sat for some minutes; her uneasiness waxing under the gaze of these many serious eyes, when there came a sound of the rustling of robes, and the Princess with Althea and Vashti entered among a bevy of maids. They crossed the hall to her, and seated themselves in chairs at her side: their supporting presence eased her disquiet.
Then Prince Raleigh said, “The Court waits.”
Lord Lisdor rose, and said, “I ask, O Prince, that my marriage with my cousin Ruth Falcon be annulled. We are childless; we love one another no longer, as husbands and wives love. We are tired of one another. Set us free from this bond.”
Ruth was surprised; but she breathed a deep sigh of relief: she had not transgressed the laws of Varandaleel.
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.