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 49 of 254
Chapter III · The Empress With the Emerald Eyes · pp. 29–37
The Keepers of the People
p. 31The tennis match between Prince Melinsky and Ralph Falcon was watched by Lady Lisdor and Althea with the liveliest suspense. They were very eager that Ralph Falcon should win; and they had learned from Lord Lisdor that he had wagered a large sum on the match. When the Russian won the first two sets they sat with fallen faces. He began the third with the confidence natural to his success, hitting hard and keeping the balls in; the first game was hard fought; in the second Ralph Falcon hit him twice in the ribs with two hard smashes: the sting of the blows roused his temper; he began to play wildly; and lost the set six games to two. The next set he was cooler, but tiring; and Ralph Falcon beat him. In the last set he made a great effort, but chanced to be hit by another smash; and trying, in a fury, to hit Ralph Falcon, whenever a chance came, he lost the set, and the match. Lady Lisdor smiled; and Althea, who had been applauding Ralph Falcon’s strokes, laughed gleefully; Prince Melinsky, in the veritable passion of a spoiled child, broke his tennis-bat across his knee; walked sullenly to the table under the trees, and drank two strong brandies and sodas: only the presence of Lady Lisdor held him from bursting into an intemperate, childish outbreak. While they drank their tea his eyes were murderous on Ralph Falcon; and after it he composed himself with more brandy and soda. When Lady Lisdor and Althea left them, and Ralph Falcon had gone to refresh himself with a bath, he broke into a sudden violence, crying, “That devil hit me on purpose! He meant to do so!”
“I think not; but if he did, it’s all in the game. Anyhow, you made it six of one and half a dozen of the other; you did your best to hit him, don’t you know?” said Lord Lisdor cheerfully.
Prince Melinsky poured forth a stream of imprecations in several tongues.
“Oh, come, what’s the good of that?” said Lord Lisdor impatiently. “Perhaps it relieves you though.”
“I will challenge him! He shall fight me!” cried Prince Melinsky.
“I should — to fight with swords,” said Lord Lisdor grimly; and he rose and left him.
Socrates
Reading The Keepers of the People · Book I, Chapter III · The Empress With the Emerald Eyes · Book I, Chapter III · The Empress With the Emerald Eyes · pp. 29–37
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.