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 80 of 254
Chapter VIII · An Offer of a Crown · pp. 77–86
The Keepers of the People
p. 83He sat with a new heaviness on his heart; and Lady Lisdor came out of the darkness. She stood before him a moment, and said in a low, clear voice, “I am to congratulate you, I see.”
“Why should you?” he said, rising; and they walked together to the house without another word.
Ralph Falcon came into the smoking-room pleased that he had settled the matter of his marriage; and that he had made it clear to Miss Freshington what he demanded from his wife. He found Lord Lisdor smoking and thinking, a rare and dangerous practice with him.
“Miss Freshington has promised to marry me,” he said.
“The deuce she has!” said Lord Lisdor. “Well — I — congratulate you,” Ralph Falcon sat down, and lit a cigar.
“You have at any rate got what you wanted — health and brains,” said Lord Lisdor.
“Yes,” said Ralph Falcon.
“And beauty besides,” said Lord Lisdor.
“No,” said Ralph Falcon.
“Well, well; a matter of taste. Most men think so. But—” said Lord Lisdor, and stopped.
“What?” said Ralph Falcon.
“Haven’t you rushed it rather? Aren’t you a bit afraid?”
“Of what?” said Ralph Falcon.
“She’s a headstrong young woman, crammed with these nonsensical new ideas, flattered to the top of her bent; and if she can’t go on having her own way, she’ll kick over the traces,” said Lord Lisdor.
“I wanted a creature of spirit. I am not afraid. I believe her honest.”
“Honest!” cried Lord Lisdor scornfully. “The dear creatures never are honest! They make so many reservations, don’t you know? All except Ruth; and I expect I shall fall over her honesty one of these days, and hurt myself badly.”
“Miss Freshington had better be honest,” said Ralph Falcon, in his even tones. “I had to marry a certain kind of woman: I think she is near it. And yet—”
“And yet what?”
“I wish I had come to England a year ago — before you married Ruth—”
“Ah,” said Lord Lisdor very seriously; “I have just been thinking it out very carefully, and I’m not sure that I don’t wish you had. I was awfully, desperately fond of her, mind you — mad about her, don’t you know? And I’m fond of her still, but it’s different. It’s different with her too; she’s somehow left me behind, reading and talking to clever people?”
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.