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 37 of 254
Chapter I · Ralph Falcon Comes to Quivern Court · pp. 3–17
The Keepers of the People
p. 12He drew from his pocket a square of folded parchment, and handed it to Lord Lisdor.
“It’s like an official document,” said Lord Lisdor, opening it and beginning to read.
It began with many friendly messages from the writer and his wife to Lord Lisdor’s father and mother: dead this twenty years; recommended Ralph Falcon to their kind offices; begged that they would aid him in the end for which he had come to England, and was subscribed Raleigh.
Lord Lisdor read it, and when he had come to the end of it, Althea said, “Give it to me; Ruth and I will put it in its place among the family papers.”
Lord Lisdor gave it to her, and said, “Let me see; I suppose it was your father who came to England when my grandfather was alive, and married my father’s sister Dorothy. I have heard all about it; but it all happened before I was born, and I have forgotten it.”
“That is what happened,” said Ralph Falcon.
“I knew you were likely to come some day; and I suppose this is your first visit to Europe,” said Lord Lisdor.
“Yes; I have been in Europe a year, studying crafts and manufactures,” said Ralph Falcon.
There came a faint laugh from Prince Melinsky, contemptuous of such a pursuit. Ralph Falcon’s face at last wore an expression — an expression of faint bewilderment; the possibility that any one might regard with contempt anything he had chosen to do, seemed new to him. Lady Lisdor and Althea, who had been watching him with the womanly eyes which miss nothing, opened them wide in a comprehending amazement.
Jackson, coming for instructions touching his luggage, broke the thread of the talk; on Althea’s suggestion, they went down to the tennis-lawn, and she and Lord Lisdor played Lady Lisdor and Prince Melinsky. Ralph Falcon watched them, his eyes alert in his set, stern face, which only relaxed now and again to an admiration of the beautiful curves of Lady Lisdor’s supple figure. At the end of the second set they stopped playing, and Lady Lisdor and Althea began again their careful watch on Ralph Falcon. They were talking to him about the game, the ease with which it might be learned, when a loud baying came from the other side of the house.
“Whatever dogs are those?” said Althea.
“Mine,” said Ralph Falcon.
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.