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 74 of 254
Chapter VII · Lady Hammersmith Protests · pp. 67–76
The Keepers of the People
p. 74“Yes; and Ralph’s servants think they will get the wolf-hound well, too,” said Althea. “They’ve been nursing it like a child.”
“How do you know they think so?” said Lord Lisdor.
“Oh, I’m getting to understand them beautifully,” said Althea. “They are very good at signs. Ralph has given Alrasch to me.”
“Impossible!” cried Lady Hammersmith. “You cannot keep a great dog like that! Think what it will eat in the year! You could have thousands of pamphlets on the most important questions printed for the money,” said Lady Hammersmith.
Althea’s face fell.
“You always had a careful mind, Amelia,” said Lord Lisdor; Lady Hammersmith winced. “I’ll keep him for you here, Althea.”
“Thank you, George,” said Althea. “I should have liked to have him in London though; it would have been so sociable.”
“Oh, well, we must see if your income can be raised to cover the extra expense,” said Lord Lisdor, who was one of the trustees of the money which had been left to the child by her grandfather.
Althea smiled at him gratefully.
“By the way, Ralph, what are you going to do, if you do come across Prince Melinsky in the East?” said Lord Lisdor.
“Kill him,” said Ralph Falcon quietly.
“Kill him!” cried two or three voices.
“Of course. He frightened Althea, and seemed to threaten me,” said Ralph Falcon.
“It sounds rather dreadful — but I think he could very well be spared,” said Lady Lisdor thoughtfully.
“You are a very dreadful person, Ruth!” said Althea. “Now is that charming, Ralph?”
“I said that Ruth and you were charming — and more,” said Ralph Falcon.
“And how will you kill him?” said Althea in a lively curiosity.
“In the fashion most convenient,” said Ralph Falcon.
“Do I gather that you deliberately propose to kill Prince Melinsky?” said Lady Hammersmith with her awful solemnity.
“Yes,” said Ralph Falcon.
“You purpose to — blot out — a fellow-creature — deliberately?” said Lady Hammersmith.
“Fellow-creature? The man is a Tartar,” said Ralph Falcon haughtily.
“Do you set — no value — on human life?” said Lady Hammersmith, very slowly indeed.
“Why should I?” said Ralph Falcon.
“That is enough. This horrible, cold-blooded, appalling cynicism is no place for the budding soul of a young child. I remove Althea from this pernicious influence to-morrow,” said Lady Hammersmith.
“It seems to me that we get no cynicism till you find it for us,” said Lady Lisdor.
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.