_The Day's Work_ throws back a clear and searching light upon some of the tales, Indian and political, which we have already passed in review. As we look back upon these stories of men and women we realise, in the light of _The Day's Work_, that machinery--the machinery of Army and Empire--enters repeatedly as a leading motive. Far from regarding Mr Kipling's passion for technical engineering as something which gets in the way of his natural genius for telling human tales, we are brought finally to realise that many of these human tales are no more than an excuse for the indulging of a passion that helplessly spins them. As literature _William the Conqueror_ and _The Head of the District_ have less to do with the politics of India than with the nuts and bolts of _The Ship That Found Herself_. The same truth applies equally to a book which has been discussed beyond all proportion to its rank among the stories of Mr Kipling. _The Light That Failed_ is often read as the high and tragical love story of Dick Heldar; but it is really nothing of the kind. It really belongs to _The Day's Work_. As the love story of Dick Heldar it is of small account. Mr Kipling thinks very little of it from that point of view. He has even allowed it, upon that side, to be deprived of all its significance in order to meet the needs of a popular actor. Mr Kipling is not the man to sell his conscience. Therefore his admirers may infer from the fact that he has sold Dick and Maisie to British and American playgoers that Dick and Maisie are not regarded by their author as of the first importance. We cannot think of Mr Kipling as allowing one screw of the ship that found herself to be misplaced. But he has cheerfully allowed his story of Dick and Maisie to be turned with a few strokes of the pen into an effective curtain for a negligible play.