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 64 of 254
Chapter V · Miss Freshington’s Interest Awakens · pp. 48–58
The Keepers of the People
p. 57One night Lady Lisdor and Miss Freshington were walking together on the terrace, waiting for the men to come to them from their wine, when Miss Freshington cried of a sudden, “How I do hate all you women!”
“I had an idea you were one yourself” said Lady Lisdor.
“No; I am not: not in the ordinary sense of the term. My desires, my aspirations are different. I will not be the complement of any man! I will have the man my complement!”
“You should have no difficulty” said Lady Lisdor drily, “in finding such a man. They are surely common enough. You have only to take one a bit thin, as George would say — and you have your desire.”
“I detest that sort of man; he is not good enough for me. For I must marry, and marry a man who will aid my career. After a certain age a woman cannot stand alone.”
“This is ambition!” said Lady Lisdor with gentle contempt.
“I loathe the idea of a husband — a perpetual tie; and above all I hate the idea of children. Children! Only think of it!” she shuddered. “If one could only take all and give nothing!”
“You are quite — prehistoric,” said Lady Lisdor, smiling.
“Ah! it is all very well for you: you have the old-fashioned instincts!” cried Miss Freshington, the bitterness welling up in her. “You would be content to be the mere complement of a man’s life.”
“Perhaps — but I never shall,” said Lady Lisdor, with a faint sigh.
“I believe you would even like to be a mother.”
“Yes,” said Lady Lisdor gently. “I should like a boy.”
“Oh, these cow-women!” said Miss Freshington under her breath.
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.