vanishing. Of all the groups of stories in _Plain Tales from the
Hills_ the Simla group, though it was largest, promised least for the
future.




III

THE SAHIB

There is another group of Indian tales, a group which deals with the
governance of India--with the men who are spent in the Imperial
Service. The peculiar charm and merit of these tales is best
considered as a special case of Mr Kipling's delight in the world's
work--a subject which claims a chapter to itself. But apart from this,
Mr Kipling's Anglo-Indian tales--his presentation of the work of the
Indian Empire, of the Anglo-Indian soldier and civilian--have an
unfortunate interest of their own. They are mainly responsible for a
misconception which has dogged Mr Kipling through all his career. This
misconception consists in regarding Mr Kipling as primarily an
Imperialist pamphleteer with a brief for the Services and a contempt
for the Progressive Parties. It is an error which has acted
mischievously upon all who share it--upon the reader who mechanically
regrets that Mr Kipling's work should be disfigured with fierce heresy;
upon the reader who chuckles with sectarian glee when the "much
talkers" are mocked and confounded; upon Mr Kipling himself who has
been encouraged to mistake an accident of his career as the essence of
his achievement and to regard himself as a sort of Imperial laureate.
The origin of this misconception is not obscure. Mr Kipling has