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 44 of 254
Chapter II · Ralph Falcon Makes the Acquaintance of His Cousins · pp. 18–28
The Keepers of the People
p. 24“It would have sounded more natural in you, if you had said ‘horses and women,’” she said in a faint indignation at the coupling. “But you: you seem to be idle with an easy mind. I wish I could do nothing in so contented a fashion.”
“I am resting,” said Ralph Falcon.
“Ah, that’s it. It’s so easy to rest. But if you have nothing to rest from?” she said, with a sigh.
“You Western women know too much to be happy,” he said gravely.
“Oh, but I am ignorant — very ignorant!” she cried.
“The knowledge is in the air,” he said.
They were silent again awhile; then she said, “I am going to hunt Althea.” He did not offer to aid her, and she went slowly down the steps.
Presently Lord Lisdor and Prince Melinsky on their way to the tennis lawn, came to him. “Like some tennis, Ralph?” said Lord Lisdor.
“I will watch you play,” said Ralph Falcon. “You can sit still admirably,” said Prince Melinsky, who never lost a chance of displaying his hostility. “I fear the East has robbed you of your English energy.”
“I think not,” said Ralph Falcon.
“At any rate, in another week, he will beat either of us at tennis,” said Lord Lisdor. “I think not,” said Prince Melinsky. “I think I shall,” said Ralph Falcon.
On the instant Prince Melinsky challenged him to a match, offering to wager any sum that he beat him. Ralph Falcon named a sum that startled Lord Lisdor; and he said, “I say, that’s gambling, don’t you know? I don’t know your affairs, Ralph, but Melinsky owns a province; you can’t measure yourself against him.”
“He did own a province,” said Prince Melinsky, with a laugh that did not ring quite true. “But he doesn’t; he is nearly broke. If I lose, I’ve no doubt that it will inconvenience me as much as it would Mr. Falcon.”
“I think we will let it — what is your phrase? — go at that,” said Ralph Falcon quietly.
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.