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 53 of 254
Chapter IV · Lady Hammersmith Asks Questions · pp. 38–47
The Keepers of the People
p. 38CHAPTER IV
LADY HAMMERSMITH ASKS QUESTIONS
Prince Melinsky did not come to breakfast the next morning; Lady Lisdor, coming in late from her ride, went to change her habit; and Ralph Falcon found Lord Lisdor and Althea already breakfasting.
“You’re back, are you?” said Lord Lisdor, looking up from a letter. “If it hadn’t been for that fall when I was young, I might have been riding too. It really makes no end of a difference — cuts me out of racing, and hunting, and leaves me nothing but shooting, and lawn tennis — lawn tennis!”
“But why?” said Ralph Falcon.
“I’m frightened to ride — frightened to,” said Lord Lisdor. “As things go, I have a certain amount of pluck; but put me on a horse, and I go sick: I want to squeal.”
“Are you afraid of anything, Ralph?” said Althea.
“Every man has his fear. I haven’t found mine yet,” said Ralph Falcon.
“Then it’s coming,” said Lord Lisdor, patting the letter by his side with a grin. “Althea, your mother’s coming down the day after to-morrow.”
“Oh dear!” said Althea softly; and her face fell.
“Affectionate daughter,” said Lord Lisdor with another grin.
“I’m sure I’m quite affectionate,” Althea protested.
“And did Ruth tell you? Agnes Freshington is coming too,” said Lord Lisdor.
“Bother!” said Althea.
“If they’re in anything like form, they’ll improve you off the face of the earth,” said Lord Lisdor.
Althea’s air grew mutinous, and she said, “I shall be awfully nice to Ruth.”
“A defensive alliance?” said Lord Lisdor.
Althea looked at him.
“But what could you two poor children do against two fighting women like them?” he said. “Now I shall score; they’ll be too busy with you to trouble me.”
“I shall go to Ralph for help,” said Althea.
“He’s far too inexperienced with women,” said Lord Lisdor.
Althea looked at Ralph Falcon thoughtfully for a while, weighing the matter; then she said, “I should think he found that difficult.”
“You know too much,” said Lord Lisdor severely.
“You taught me, George, don’t you know?” said Althea in her gentlest drawl.
When Lady Lisdor came, and learned that Lady Hammersmith was coming, she looked at Althea, who sat plunged in pondering gloom, and said, “You won’t be able to do as you like now, Althea.”
“I shall keep out of the way,” said Althea firmly.
“Oh, little coward!” said Lady Lisdor.
Socrates
Reading The Keepers of the People · Book I, Chapter IV · Lady Hammersmith Asks Questions · Book I, Chapter IV · Lady Hammersmith Asks Questions · pp. 38–47
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.