It was first published in the Civil and Military Gazette on December 7, 1886, and in book form in the first Indian edition of Plain Tales from the Hills in 1888.
The story is one of Kipling's reflections on relations between the English settlers, representing the British Raj, and the native population.
(This was a form of disgrace for the ruling class in Britain: those who failed, like Garron, in the home country were sometimes sent out 'to the Colonies' to try to redeem themselves.)
He is a man of weak character, but he settles into decent (if not exceptional, as he believes) competence - and as he works, forgets Agnes, other than as a daydream.
He takes up shortly after with a Hill-woman called Dunmaya, the daughter of a senior soldier among the troops of the Native Army and marries her.