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 241 of 254
Chapter XIX · Althea Intervenes · pp. 347–358
The Keepers of the People
p. 351She undressed slowly; went to her bed; and was very soon in a dreamless sleep.
At the dawn one of Althea’s maids awakened her. She saw that the girl’s face was troubled, but thought nothing of it; in truth, the girl had been roused by their voices the night before, and knowing a little English, had made out something of what was toward.
Ruth came out of her bath with her pale face paler than its wont, but serene; and having dressed, thrust the letter to Prince Ralph into her bosom. She went, still pale, but on steady feet, to the central chamber, where Althea, her wild eyes darkly ringed, her face haggard, her hair dishevelled, awaited her. During the slow night her desire for Ruth’s death had lost something of its keenness; but the challenge had come from her, her stubborn pride strengthened her resolution, and kill her she would, if she could.
“Choose,” she said, holding out a case of pistols, very careful not to look in Ruth’s face.
Ruth took one; and Althea, bidding one of the maids follow them, led the way. They came out into the garden very quietly; and the maid they had left behind, after wringing her hands in a perplexed distress for a moment, hurried away to the chambers of Vashti. When the fresh morning struck her face, Ruth heaved a quick sigh: the world had never seemed so beautiful to her; and the swift thought, that she would never see Prince Ralph again cut her heart so that she caught her breath in a little sob. Althea showed no sign of hearing it, but moved heavily on, as one very weary to an unwelcome, unnecessary task. At the second gate there was a delay: the guard had fallen asleep, and the maid had to hammer at it with a stone to awaken him. When they had passed through, and were coming to the gate of the garden of the Pavilion, Ruth said, “I will ask you one thing, Althea. We have been fond of one another — till this; and you may grant it. Do not shoot me in the face, or head; shoot me through the body.”
Althea shivered; and said sullenly, “Very well.”
Socrates
Reading The Keepers of the People · Book II, Chapter XIX · Althea Intervenes · Book II, Chapter XIX · Althea Intervenes · pp. 347–358
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.