not be alone. His room-mate had gone,
and the hours of darkness were an agony to him. He watched the
window in suffering and terror. When would this horrible
darkness be lifted off him? Setting all his nerves, he endured
it. He went to sleep with the dawn.

He never thought of her. Only his terror of the hours of
night grew on him, obsessed him like a mania. He slept fitfully,
with constant wakings of anguish. The fear wore away the core of
him.

His plan was to sit up very late: drink in company until one
or half-past one in the morning; then he would get three hours
of sleep, of oblivion. It was light by five o'clock. But he was
shocked almost to madness if he opened his eyes on the
darkness.

In the daytime he was all right, always occupied with the
thing of the moment, adhering to the trivial present, which
seemed to him ample and satisfying. No matter how little and
futile his occupations were, he gave himself to them entirely,
and felt normal and fulfilled. He was always active, cheerful,
gay, charming, trivial. Only he dreaded the darkness and silence
of his own bedroom, when the darkness should challenge him upon
his own soul. That he could not bear, as he could not bear to
think about Ursula. He had no soul, no background. He never
thought of Ursula, not once, he gave her no sign. She was the
darkness, the challenge, the horror. He turned to immediate
things. He wanted to marry quickly, to screen himself from the
darkness, the challenge of his own soul. He would marry his
Colonel's daughter. Quickly, without hesitation, pursued by his
obsession for activity, he wrote to this girl, telling her his
engagement was broken--it had been a temporary infatuation
which he less than any one else could understand now it was
over--and could he see his very dear friend soon? He would
not be happy till he had an answer.

He received a rather surprised reply from the girl, but she
would be glad to see him. She was living with her aunt. He went
down to her at once, and proposed to her the first evening. He
was accepted. The marriage took place quietly within fourteen
days' time. Ursula was not notified of the event. In another
week, Skrebensky sailed with his new wife to India.

CHAPTER XVI

THE RAINBOW

Ursula went home to Beldover faint, dim, closed up. She could
scarcely speak or notice. It was as if her energy were frozen.
Her people asked her what was the matter. She told them she had
broken off the eng