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 71 of 254
Chapter VII · Lady Hammersmith Protests · pp. 67–76
The Keepers of the People
p. 68“Oh, how nice of you!” cried Althea. “How very, very nice of you! I have wanted him for my own ever so. But — but —” she said hesitating — “I don’t think I ought to take him from you. You see, I have Ruth and George; but you are among strangers; and you won’t feel so lonely, if you have him.”
“I have you, and Ruth, and George,” said Ralph Falcon. “You must have him.”
“That is a very nice thing to say; and I will take him with ever so many thanks,” said Althea.
“Good,” said Ralph Falcon.
Then he turned to Lady Lisdor and said, “I’ve been thinking that while my father sent gifts to his English kin, I brought none. Of course, I could buy a gift; but that would not be the same as if it came from my home. But I brought one thing, a girdle I wrought myself; it is rough; but will you take it from me?”
Lady Lisdor opened her mouth to refuse it; but, looking into his face, she changed her mind, and said, “I should like it very much indeed.”
He went, and came back quickly, bringing an ebony casket; and, opening it, took from it the girdle. It was formed of seven linked falcon’s claws of wrought gold, each holding a precious stone. It was massive, a little rough, as he had said, almost barbaric, yet of a certain fineness of design. Lady Lisdor took it, and swung it to and fro, doubting; she had not looked for so fine a gift. Then she thrust down her scruples; looked at him with strange eyes and said, “The giver of a girdle should clasp it on.”
“Shall I?” he said slowly; and his eyes met hers with a challenge in them. “It is a magic girdle.”
She rose from her seat, and raised her arms for answer. He dropped on one knee to be level with her waist, and clasped it round her. As the fastening clicked, she shivered.
He rose, his impassive look changed to a faint air of triumph, and said, “That girdle will take its wearer safe through five hundred miles of barbarous Asia.”
“What are its magic powers?” said Althea, alert for the marvellous.
“Only the wearer will learn,” said Ralph Falcon.
Socrates
Reading The Keepers of the People · Book I, Chapter VII · Lady Hammersmith Protests · Book I, Chapter VII · Lady Hammersmith Protests · pp. 67–76
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.