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 243 of 254
Chapter XIX · Althea Intervenes · pp. 347–358
The Keepers of the People
p. 355There was a silence; and Althea muttered, “I am a woman — and a coward. How — how should you have known of it? You should never have known of it — never!”
He stood silent, thoughtful.
“Yet — it was your fault,” said Althea: her shame forcing her to defence. “I should never have thought of it — but for that — that kiss.”
Ruth stirred.
“What kiss?” said Prince Ralph quickly. “When I killed the tiger.”
They were silent again awhile. “Now — now — I must go. You must send me back to England,” said Althea with a sob. “Will you be happier in England?” he said.
“I don’t know. No,” said Althea. “I will not let you go!” he said. “You help keep the people. I need you.”
She quivered: the words thrilled her. They were silent again.
Presently he said, very slowly, “You two foolish children, why do you quarrel for me? Am I not big enough for both of you?”
Ruth’s brow puckered: her eyes gleamed; and she flushed. Althea drew her head from her breast. “Truly,” she said, and a faint smile shone for a moment through the cloud of misery, “there is no nonsense in Varandaleel. I never thought of that.” Prince Ralph looked from one to the other.
“It is for Ruth to say — you belong to her,” said Althea. Ruth rose slowly with knitted brow; she looked at Prince Ralph, she looked at the stricken Althea. She was on fire to make amends for the harm she had wrought her. But—
She threw her arms out in an anger, and cried, “Was ever woman in the world called on to settle such a matter! I will not say! It is putting names to things! You should never put names to things! It is my hour now. Althea’s hour may come. I leave it — on the knees of the Gods.”
Althea rose in her turn; shook her hair over her face that they might not see it; beckoned her maid to her; and leaning on her arm, went towards the Pavilion on very feeble feet.
“Goodbye,” she said. “I am going to the forests — for a long while. There is peace in the forests. I have been a woman — I shall grow brave again. Goodbye.”
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.