On the Strength of a Likeness (Unabridged)

First published in the Civil and Military Gazette on 10 January 1887, and collected in Plain Tales from the Hills in 1888, and in successive later editions of this collection. This story is well summarised by Norman Page, in «A Kipling Companion». «A shallow young man who has been disappointed in love meets a married woman – [Mrs Landys-Haggert] – who strikingly resembles the girl who has refused him. After pursuing her because she reminds him of his lost love, he discovers to his dismay that he is in love with her for her own sake. When they part, he tells her 'very earnestly and adoringly', 'I hope to Heaven I shall never see your face again'.»