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 45 of 254
Chapter II · Ralph Falcon Makes the Acquaintance of His Cousins · pp. 18–28
The Keepers of the People
p. 25At lunch it was plain that peace reigned once more between Lady Lisdor and Althea, and that they had joined against Lord Lisdor. Lady Lisdor’s sense of justice, and Althea’s somewhat belated sense of loyalty to Lady Lisdor demanded this punishment, and both treated him with a very cold severity. To all seeming, he was blind to it; and their efforts to make it plain to his obtuseness diverted for the while their attention from Ralph Falcon. After lunch it rained; and in the smoking-room Lord Lisdor, ever thoughtful of his muscles, suggested an hour’s fencing, and led the way to a room fitted as a gymnasium. He fenced with Prince Melinsky for a while, and then said, “Would you like a lesson, Ralph? I suppose you have only learned some Eastern fashion of fencing?”
“No; we fence in the European fashion; my grandfather, and for that matter my grandmother too, was a fine blade,” said Ralph Falcon.
“Your grandfather was a bit of a sportsman, wasn’t he?” said Lord Lisdor.
“Yes,” said Ralph Falcon, “there was no nonsense about my grandfather,” and rising he put on the mask and leathern jacket. “You take him on Melinsky,” said Lord Lisdor. “You’re better than I am.”
The Russian faced Ralph Falcon with an air of contemptuous confidence, for he was, indeed, a good swordsman. But in twenty seconds he found himself entirely on the defensive, utterly outmatched in strength of wrist, quickness, skill, and knowledge. In a minute he had been forced back to the wall, and Ralph Falcon’s foil had bent double against his breast half a dozen times.
“That’s pretty strong!” cried Lord Lisdor.
They lowered their foils, and as they came back to the middle of the room, Lady Lisdor entered with Althea. Prince Melinsky scowled, and began the second attack with great fury; but the end was the same, and he was driven back to the wall. Then, unwilling that Lady Lisdor should see him worsted again by Ralph Falcon, he refused very sullenly to fence any more. Lord Lisdor took his place for a while, and was worsted even more easily.
“If you were only a poker-player, Ralph, you would be a thoroughly accomplished person,” he said, as he drew off his fencing-jacket.
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.