Peter might have done the same thing without being half as wicked as I was.

He did not feel the wickedness of that kind of thing as I did.

He would have laughed over it merrily.

But the vile dregs of my wrath with the Kelpie were fermenting in my bosom, and the horrid pleasure I found in annoying an innocent girl because the wicked Kelpie had made me angry, could never have been expressed in a merry laugh like Mason's.

The fact is, I was more displeased with myself than with anybody else, though I did not allow it, and would not take the trouble to repent and do the right thing.