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 59 of 254
Chapter V · Miss Freshington’s Interest Awakens · pp. 48–58
The Keepers of the People
p. 49“No schools!” said Lady Hammersmith. “Not even schools for reading and writing?”
“Reading and writing were inexpedient; and were abolished” said Ralph Falcon. “This is worse and worse!” said Lady Hammersmith. “These poor benighted people are reduced to the position of mere money-making tools to fill English pockets. It always happens — always. It is disgraceful!”
“And the women, Mr. Falcon?” said Miss Freshington. “I suppose they are, as in other Eastern countries, mere chattels — slaves.”
“Very few women are slaves anywhere,” said Ralph Falcon.
“That’s what I always say,” said Lord Lisdor. “And the morality of the people? I hope — it would excuse much — that you punish with the utmost severity any aberration from the proper relations between—” Lady Hammersmith began, and was cut short by Lady Lisdor’s rising.
In the drawing-room a discussion arose between Lady Hammersmith and Miss Freshington as to the purity of the wearing of knickerbockers by women. They were inveterate opponents; for Miss Freshington belonged to the younger party in the great woman movement, the party whose aim was less the restriction of the liberties of others than the securing an entire freedom of manly action and enjoyment for themselves; and Lady Hammersmith regarded her knickerbockers, music-halls, and shooting with an unfeigned horror, almost set her beyond the pale of womanhood. Lady Lisdor and Althea left them hotly engaged, and went out into the moonlight; loosed Alrasch; and were moving down the long reaches of lawn to the woods when Ralph Falcon joined them. Althea left Lady Lisdor’s side, and slipped her hand through his arm.
“It was not such a disagreeable dinner as last night,” she said presently in her slow, gentle voice. “No one laughed at all last night. Were you much bored, Ralph?”
“It was strange,” said Ralph Falcon.
“Poor, dear mamma is dreadful,” said Althea with a sigh.
“Will you be like that when you grow old?” he said to Lady Lisdor.
“No, she won’t! She isn’t that kind!” said Althea quickly.
“No,” said Lady Lisdor — “I know too much.”
“It should be repressed. Such things are outside the province of women,” said Ralph Falcon.
“Oh, this is very old-fashioned,” said Althea joyfully. “You’re worse than George, don’t you know?”
“What do you think the province of women?” said Lady Lisdor.
“Motherhood chiefly,” said Ralph Falcon.
“Yes; but in the lives of men?” said Lady Lisdor.
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.