At that moment some person in Mr. Periwinkle Smith's house, which was right opposite, entered a front chamber therein with a light, which streamed into the windows of Pattie's apartment with a lustre sufficient to make every object visible. My cousin Pattie was not to be seen! I looked under the bed, and into the bed; examined the presses, and peeped behind the chairs; but no cousin Pattie was to be found. She had locked _me_ in the chamber, but not herself! Horror of horrors! she had played a trick upon me! she had jilted me! and--ay! there was no doubting it a moment longer--she had run off with my friend Tickle! "I'll show you how I serve fortune-hunters," said she--"lock him up in a closet--kick his heels till morning--eaten up by rats--shall hear yourself how I'll serve your rival Tickle." Death and destruction! and, after all, she has run away with him!--eloped in the very carriage I provided! married by the parson I engaged! decamped with the forty thousand I secured! and I--_I_, the unfortunate, jilted, cozened _I_--was the person left kicking my heels in a closet! The idea filled me with phrensy; and the light from Mr. Periwinkle Smith's house being removed at the moment, I tumbled over a chair that lay in my way, and besides breaking my head and shin, woke up such a din in the house that the very servants in the kitchen bounced up in alarm, and screamed out for assistance. "What's the matter, Pattie?" said my uncle Wilkins, turning the key which the faithless creature had left sticking in the outside of the door, and entering: "I say, Pattie, ods bobs, what's the--Lord bless us, cousin Ikey! is that you? what's the matter? what are you doing in Pattie's chamber?" I answered my uncle Wilkins only by opening my mouth as wide as I could, and staring at him in anguish, horror, and despair. "Where's Pattie?" said he, in alarm. The question restored me to my faculties. "Eloped," said I; "cheated me beyond all expression, and run off with my rival Jack Tickle." "What a fool!" said my uncle, recovering his composure; "I'm sure I never opposed her." "So much for not giving her to me!" said I. "To you!" said my uncle. "Uncle Wilkins," said I, "from this moment I shall cut your acquaintance. Pattie has jilted me so horribly you can't conceive, and has married Jack Tickle!" "Well," said my uncle, "where's the harm? To be sure, and a'n't he as good now as worth ten thousand a year?" "Not worth a cent!" said I, shaking my fists at the old gentleman--and then drumming on my own breast--"not worth a cent, and down in every tailor's books in town, except Snip's, who wouldn't trust him." "Oh, you villain!" said my uncle Wilkins, "how you've cheated me!" He ran down stairs, and I after him; he was bent upon pursuing his daughter--and so was I. CHAPTER XXII. IN WHICH SHEPPARD LEE FINDS THAT HE HAS MADE THE FORTUNE OF HIS FRIENDS, WITHOUT HAVING GREATLY ADVANTAGED HIS OWN.