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 79 of 254
Chapter VIII · An Offer of a Crown · pp. 77–86
The Keepers of the People
p. 81“Marry you?” she said in a shaking voice —“marry you?”
“Yes,” he said.
“What can you give me, Mr. Falcon?” she said, seeking time to learn what she desired.
“I can give you a crown,” said Ralph Falcon in his even voice.
“A crown?” she murmured.
“Yes; you will be the wife of a ruler of the kingdom. But you must know that it is a crown rarely worn before the eyes of man. The wearing of it is not splendid with pageants. We live aloof from our subjects. My wife too is my consort, and the mother of my sons; but she does not hold the sceptre. At the most she may help me rule.”
The last words fell idly on her ears, her mind was too full of the central idea of the crown. The desire of her heart was power; she confused the symbol with the fact, and in the darkness there gleamed, very plain to her eyes, a shining crown. She was dazzled, amazed; then the sense of something lacking fell on her heart, and she did not speak, struggling with the new thought.
He did not press her, but waited silent.
Presently she said, in a shaking voice, “I am amazed, confused. A crown is a great thing, indeed. It dazzles me. But men offer love too.”
“Love?” said Ralph Falcon in unmoved, passionless tones — “love? What is this love? All of you talk of it, men and women alike. Your writers write of it. But it seems to me that it is for women and dreamers to love, not for men with their work to do. I have no time for love; I have to rule the people.”
The crown was shining brighter and brighter before her eyes.
“But yet — —” she said, and as she wavered, the jewels in the crown blazed more brilliant than ever jewels from the earth. “Yes; I will marry you, Ralph” she said faintly. He rose, and raised her hand to his lips; let it fall, and dropped back into his chair. They sat silent. Of a sudden a throbbing ache for a word of passion, or fondness began to rack her heart. With a sob she rose; threw her arms round his neck; touched his forehead with very cold lips; cried, “You will love me a little too, Ralph!” and hurried from the terrace on unsteady feet.
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.