Characteristically the author who began virtually at the end of his
career--proclaiming himself a finished virtuoso at the start--entered
into prose with a volume of tales, radiating from Simla, which betray
qualities that are usually associated with the later rather than with
the early work of an author. _Plain Tales from the Hills_ number more
Simla stories to the square page than any other volume of Mr Kipling.
Now Mr Kipling's Simla stories are the least important, but in some
ways the most significant of all the stories he wrote. They begin and
they end in sheer literary virtuosity. We feel in reading Mr Kipling's
studies of the social world at Simla that he had no intuitive call to
write them; that they are exercises in craft rather than genuine
inspirations. Mrs Hawksbee stands for nothing in Mr Kipling's
achievement save only for his power to create an illusion of reality
and enthusiasm by sheer finish of style. She is not a creation. She
is only the best possible example of the clever sleight-of-hand of an
accomplished artificer. She is in literary fiction cousin to the
witty, flirtatious ladies of the modern English theatre. Her
conversation is delightful, but it belongs to nobody. It does not even
belong to her author. Mrs Hawksbee talks as all well-dressed women
talk in the best books. She does it with a volubility and
resourcefulness which almost disguises the fact that she lives only by
hanging desperately to the end of her author's pen; but she cannot
deceive us always. Mr Kipling does not really believe in Mrs Hawksbee.
He has no real sympathy or knowledge of the social undercrust where the
tangle of three is a constant theme. The talk of Mrs Hawksbee and her
circle is derived. Its conduct is fashionable light comedy in an
Indian setting.

Simla really does not deserve to be known outside the Indian Empire.
It is a comparatively cool place whither Indian soldier and civilians