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 34 of 254
Chapter I · Ralph Falcon Comes to Quivern Court · pp. 3–17
The Keepers of the People
p. 6When they came from the path into the wide aisle, they walked abreast; and from time to time the two of them let fall an admiring glance on their big companion. He walked silent, slowing and shortening his stride to their pace; he seemed to feel no need to say anything.
Lady Lisdor, who had no knack of small-talk, saw no great politeness in beginning with a question, and thought the beauties of the wood obvious, was casting about what to say, when the child began: “About that piracy: are you a pirate, cousin Ralph?”
“Mr. Falcon,” said Lady Lisdor.
“Cousin Ralph,” said the child with gentle firmness.
“Let it be Cousin Ralph. It’s pleasant hearing; I have been among strangers so long,” he said. “No, little cousin, I am not a pirate. Are you pulling my leg?”
“Oh!” said the child quickly. “You must have heard what I said to Ruth!”
She laughed gleefully, and sprang away from Lady Lisdor’s hand that grasped swiftly at her arm.
“But what do you know about that piracy?” said Ralph Falcon.
“Oh, it’s a family legend,” said the child. “The only family legend; all the others are scandals, like that story—”
“Althea!” cried Lady Lisdor.
“Very well, Ruth — very well; I won’t,” said the child. “But I wish you had been a pirate all the same, cousin Ralph. I have never known a pirate; but I have always thought they would be so violent, and nice, don’t you know?”
A little spark flashed in either of his grey eyes; he caught the child by the waist, swung her lightly off her feet, and held her lightly out at arm’s length, as one might hold a kitten.
“Oh, how delightful!” cried the child, and shivered in his arms, gazing into his eyes with her own half closed.
“Mr. Falcon!” cried Lady Lisdor.
Obedient to the tone, he set the child lightly on her feet, and Lady Lisdor slipped a restraining hand round her waist.
“Don’t you think you might introduce us now, Ruth?” said the child.
“Miss Althea Flodden — Mr. Falcon,” said Lady Lisdor, smiling.
“I think,” said Althea thoughtfully, “that if only you are as wicked as you are strong, I shall find you very amusing, cousin Ralph. At any rate, you will be able to prevent Ruth bullying me.”
Socrates
Reading The Keepers of the People · Book I, Chapter I · Ralph Falcon Comes to Quivern Court · Book I, Chapter I · Ralph Falcon Comes to Quivern Court · pp. 3–17
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.