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 97 of 254
Chapter X · The Revolt of Althea · pp. 99–114
The Keepers of the People
p. 110They walked slowly out of the park, and, bidding him goodbye, drove in a hansom, to Ralph Falcon’s house in Portland Place.
Althea found that the rooms, the library, and the dining-room in which Ralph Falcon lived, had been furnished very simply: there were but a few big easy chairs and a large divan, piled with cushions, in each. The dishes at breakfast had been cooked in a fashion strange, but delicious to her taste; and two great brown mutes, other than those who had been at Quivern, waited on them.
Ralph Falcon was not slow to perceive that Althea in London was changed from Althea in the country: she had lost her alertness and lightness of spirit; her smiles came seldom, her laugh never: she seemed to be living in the shadow. Mindful of his promise to Lady Lisdor, he set about learning the causes of it; and after breakfast, as he lay on the divan smoking a narghile, he drew from her the story of the loneliness of her life and her quarrel with her mother. When he had learned it all, he lay silent for a while thoughtful; and a desire sprang up in him to take this beautiful child away from this trammelling, modern world, and give her a finer life.
“How would you like to leave this dull country, and live in a sunnier land?” he said at last.
“With whom?” said Althea quickly.
“With me,” said Ralph Falcon.
“If it were not for leaving Ruth and George, I should like it very much,” said Althea.
“They are very likely to come to see me,” said Ralph Falcon. “If you did not like it, you should come back.”
“Would they come? Then I think I should like it,” said Althea. “But — but I had quite forgotten! You are going to marry Miss Freshington!”
“Yes,” said Ralph Falcon.
“Ah, well — I mean, I congratulate you,” said Althea.
“Thank you,” said Ralph Falcon.
“But you see it quite prevents it. She would not like it,” said Althea.
“Why should she?” said Ralph Falcon.
“Oh, she’s your wife,” said Althea.
“She need never know, if you would rather not: no one should know,” said Ralph Falcon.
“Women are so curious,” said Althea. “But if it could be managed—”
“It can,” said Ralph Falcon. “In the meanwhile consider it.” “I should like to,” said Althea.
Socrates
Reading The Keepers of the People · Book I, Chapter X · The Revolt of Althea · Book I, Chapter X · The Revolt of Althea · pp. 99–114
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.