Diotimos Library · Literary Fiction Collection · English Edition
The Keepers of the People
A Critical Edition of the 1898 Novel
Swipe or use the arrow keys.
English Edition · Branch 65 of 254
Chapter VI · Prince Melinsky Arranges a Dog-Fight · pp. 59–66
The Keepers of the People
p. 59CHAPTER VI
PRINCE MELINSKY ARRANGES A DOG-FIGHT
The days wore on. Little by little Lady Lisdor, Althea, and Miss Freshington had grown confirmed in a belief, founded on a thousand trifles, that Ralph Falcon was a man of great authority in his own country; and it did not lessen his attraction for them. His influence over Miss Freshington was growing; and the hours of her freedom from it grew fewer and fewer. She had grown sure that he was aware of his power, that it rested on a deep insight into her own nature; and she almost feared him. Indeed, though he had never met a girl of her kind before, an admirable, natural instinct, aiding his knowledge of the sex, had shown him at once the right method of dealing with her, the way to mastery; and he was growing assured that she would marry him. Now and again she would make an effort to assert herself; now she would attack him, now she would try to impress on him the greatness of women; but her assaults and arguments alike left him unmoved. To the former he opposed an indifference that was very near contempt; to the latter the coldness of a clearer knowledge. Sometimes, indeed, he would take the offensive, deriding the woman convention, or showing her new depths in her nature.
Lord Lisdor watched the process of her subjugation with a pleased, experienced interest, and one night he said to Ralph Falcon, “I suppose you will soon ask Miss Freshington to marry you?”
“Yes,” said Ralph Falcon.
“Try and be a little cheerful. I do not think she will refuse,” said Lord Lisdor.
“No,” said Ralph Falcon.
“She has the qualities you want — health and brains?” said Lord Lisdor.
“Yes,” said Ralph Falcon.
“And she’s very fond of you, don’t you know?” said Lord Lisdor.
“Yes,” said Ralph Falcon.
“I don’t see why you shouldn’t be cheerful about it, then — unless you think when she gets out to Asia, she’ll be for crying off the bargain.”
Ralph Falcon shook his head, and was thoughtful awhile; then he said, “I wish I had come to England earlier; I would have married Ruth.”
“Eh? Oh, I see. Yes; she would have been honest with you,” said Lord Lisdor. “Only, dear boy, you would never have come across her.”
Socrates
Reading The Keepers of the People · Book I, Chapter VI · Prince Melinsky Arranges a Dog-Fight · Book I, Chapter VI · Prince Melinsky Arranges a Dog-Fight · pp. 59–66
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.