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The Keepers of the People
A Critical Edition of the 1898 Novel
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English Edition · Branch 76 of 254
Chapter VIII · An Offer of a Crown · pp. 77–86
The Keepers of the People
p. 77CHAPTER VIII
AN OFFER OF A CROWN
The next day dawned on Lady Hammersmith’s unbroken purpose; and she said that she would return to Town in the afternoon, and take Althea with her. Lady Lisdor protested, and Lord Lisdor was rude; but she remained unshaken from her resolve. Althea was sad, for all that Lady Lisdor could do to comfort her; and wandered about with Alrasch, wearing a woebegone air.
Ralph Falcon came upon them, and asked her what was the matter; and she said, “I am so sorry to leave Quivern. I shall be so dull and dismal in Town.”
“Don’t you like Town?” he said.
“No: I don’t. Here life is quite full of pleasant things, don’t you know? In Town it is quite empty. I shall have Alrasch though;” and she grew a little brighter at the thought.
“Every one is lonely,” said Ralph Falcon; and he considered her carefully: ever since she had so swiftly stripped the muzzle off Alrasch, he had suspected that she was of a stronger spirit than her frail air had at first led him to believe: and as he considered her, a thought came to him.
“I’m not lonely here,” she said.
“Well, it’s my fault you are going,” said Ralph Falcon.
“Oh, no,” said Althea generously. “Mamma is like that.”
“I have a mind to take you away to Fairyland,” said Ralph Falcon.
“I am too old to believe in those kind of things; I am thirteen,” said Althea with dignity.
“I might find one for you, nevertheless,” said Ralph Falcon.
“I wish you would,” said Althea wistfully. “Oh, here comes mamma!” And she fled.
Lady Hammersmith came with a very important face, burdened with a mission. She stopped before Ralph Falcon, and said, “I was determined not to go without a few words with you, Ralph.” She paused. “It seems to me that you have been very badly educated; but as you have never been exposed to the degrading influences of an English Public School, there is some hope for you. I wish to talk to you about the native races with whom you are brought into contact, to bid you remember that they are in every respect your superiors, because they are purer than you; because their finer souls—”
“You are plainly a very ignorant woman,” said Ralph Falcon quietly.
Socrates
Reading The Keepers of the People · Book I, Chapter VIII · An Offer of a Crown · Book I, Chapter VIII · An Offer of a Crown · pp. 77–86
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.