Diotimos Library · Literary Fiction Collection · English Edition
The Keepers of the People
A Critical Edition of the 1898 Novel
Swipe or use the arrow keys.
English Edition · Branch 42 of 254
Chapter II · Ralph Falcon Makes the Acquaintance of His Cousins · pp. 18–28
The Keepers of the People
p. 21Prince Melinsky, who had immured himself at Quivern Court, at this season, out of an admiration for her, began to rage at their growing intimacy, and even came to Lord Lisdor with a warning.
Lord Lisdor laughed at his impertinence, and said: “You are used to foreign women, Melinsky. But Lady Lisdor is a Falcon. She was brought up away from other women, fortunately; and so she’s as straight as a die.”
Alone with Althea she was a child with a child; and they lavished on one another an extraordinary fondness. In either the will to love had found no expression in the common ways: neither had had any relations or friends to be fond of, and each had filled the place of them in the other’s heart. Before they had known one another, Lord Lisdor had absorbed all the affection of either; and it had come about that there was a continuous playful rivalry between him and Lady Lisdor for the sole possession of the child. Althea took advantage of it to say and do anything she chose; played them off against one another with a pretty skill, and gave the rein to her charming insolence whenever the whim took her.
One morning the air at breakfast was heavy with storm. Lady Lisdor had worn a look of real or feigned anger; Lord Lisdor was subdued; and Althea, the spring and origin of the mischief, had ignored either with an air of serene innocence, talking only to Ralph Falcon and Prince Melinsky. After breakfast Ralph Falcon was smoking on the terrace, when she came along it with Alrasch, and sat down in a chair near him, her brow puckered thoughtfully.
He saw her troubled air; and presently he said to her, “What is troubling you?”
“I’m afraid I suffer from want of occupation; and if ever I have nothing to do, I get into mischief” said Althea, with a great seriousness.
“Women always do,” said Ralph Falcon.
“But you shouldn’t say so,” cried Althea.
“Why shouldn’t I?” said Ralph Falcon.
“Oh, because — because—” and she paused, puzzled — “because women are supposed to be so perfect.”
“Yes; I’m beginning to see that,” he said.
“There! I knew you’d say something of that kind!” she cried. “You always do; you’re worse than Ruth!”
“How?” he said quickly.
Socrates
Reading The Keepers of the People · Book I, Chapter II · Ralph Falcon Makes the Acquaintance of His Cousins · Book I, Chapter II · Ralph Falcon Makes the Acquaintance of His Cousins · pp. 18–28
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.