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 83 of 254
Chapter IX · Althea Breaks With Her Mother · pp. 87–98
The Keepers of the People
p. 88“Robert,” she said gently, “I want you to come out with me; go and put on your hat.”
“I can’t, miss,” said Robert without turning round.
Althea smiled a little grim smile, considered Robert’s position for a moment, then slipped off Alrasch’s muzzle, and said sharply, “Well then, I am going to set Alrasch on you; and I think he will tear you — Alrasch! — s-s-s-s!” Alrasch snarled, crouched to spring, only restrained by her light grasp on his collar, and Robert turned swiftly. One glance at the bared teeth of the dog, one glance at Althea’s eyes, and his florid face whitened.
“Oh, Lord, miss!” he cried. “I’ll come at once!”
Althea let the full sense of his peril sink into him, and then said, “Quiet, Alrasch — quiet! I thought you only wanted training, Robert; get your hat, and be quick!”
Robert ran for his hat, with knocking knees; while Althea, after muzzling Alrasch, chose the prettiest gold-mounted cane her father had, thinking that it would help her to maintain an air of dignity. When Robert came back she gave him the books to carry, and bidding him walk behind her, left the house with Alrasch. She walked up into Piccadilly, and down it to the Circus. There she hailed a four-wheeler, took Alrasch inside with her, put Robert on the box and drove to Mudie’s. At Mudie’s she secured the greatest attention ever accorded to a subscriber; discoursed of her taste in books to the manager; and left him astonished and troubled by her choice. On coming out she found herself hungry; and came down Oxford Street looking for a restaurant to her liking. The air of Frascati’s pleased her, and she went in. One of the big men in uniform told her that Alrasch might not go into the restaurant with her, but must be left in the vestibule. Thereupon, she took off his muzzle, and said gently, “Very well; but if he tries to follow me, you must stop him.”
Socrates
Reading The Keepers of the People · Book I, Chapter IX · Althea Breaks With Her Mother · Book I, Chapter IX · Althea Breaks With Her Mother · pp. 87–98
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.