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 58 of 254
Chapter V · Miss Freshington’s Interest Awakens · pp. 48–58
The Keepers of the People
p. 48CHAPTER V
MISS FRESHINGTON’S INTEREST AWAKES
Lady Lisdor was disquieted; and the cause of her disquiet was obscure to her. She had no feeling about Miss Freshington; she did not think that Ralph Falcon needed protection; but the thought of his marrying her troubled her; and she was long falling asleep. However, she came to her ride with him in the morning with a mind clear to enjoy it; for she possessed that finest gift of heaven, the power of putting aside the past and the future, and living in the present. When they pulled their horses to a walk her brow was smooth, and her eyes bright with the joy of movement and the morning. She was for a while in two minds whether, or no, to question him touching what he had said at dinner the night before: she had learned that he disliked questions about his life in the East: but at last she said, “What you said last night at dinner about your father’s estate, about killing missionaries, and being worshipped, sounded very dreadful and strange. Was it true; or were you teasing Lady Hammersmith?” “It was true,” he said. “I cannot explain it to you — even to you. But you must not suppose that the — the estate is managed to suit entirely our own interests. Indeed, I assure you that the interests of the people come first.”
“No,” she said: “I did not think for an instant that you consulted only your own interests.”
She was satisfied; and asked him no more questions. During the day the disquiet which she could not understand returned; for Miss Freshington had made up her mind that Ralph Falcon was quite new, and set about giving him a full enjoyment of her talk.
Dinner began serenely: every one was in a pleasant humour, even Lady Hammersmith; for she had written twenty letters. Lady Lisdor put herself about, out of regard for Ralph Falcon, to guide the talk from dangerous ground, and keep it on safe, pleasant themes; but at dessert Lady Hammersmith: all her powers stimulated by the food, and her combative instinct awakened by that difficulty of digestion induced by drinking no wine, said to Ralph Falcon, with a severe air of demand, “Are any but the most elementary subjects taught in the schools on your father’s estate, Mr. Falcon?”
“There are no schools,” said Ralph Falcon.
Socrates
Reading The Keepers of the People · Book I, Chapter V · Miss Freshington’s Interest Awakens · Book I, Chapter V · Miss Freshington’s Interest Awakens · pp. 48–58
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.