Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1856-07-12
EVENING STAR.
THE 7 A LEAU VIVANT,
Or, Statue of Love

II Z a d 4 a U VI v A N /,
Or, Statue Of Love.
"I would not change my Joy and grief, my laugh
ter and my tears,
Fora their soulless happiness whom fancy never
| cheers"
Heigho it is impossible to suit oneself, -
said lovely girl, despairingly, after looking
| through porte-feuille, annual, and print. on
the table, and tossing the last from her "
| have half mind to give up the search but
no, cannot-yet what tableau shall take 80
"Ntmports it will surely be an angelic
| one, said voice that Helen knew to be her
cousins.
Aubrey eavesdropper
| HNay, Helen, how could l, when came in
unperceiyed, disturb that pretty listlessness,
or sweeter reverie! Let me select the pref
tlest Tor you-yet already despair of finding
anything worthy Of such sweet excellence"
30 saying, he commenced ransacking the
Porte'feulile, and rejecting all, had nearly
given up the search, when a really exc uisite
design caught and quickly rivetted his atten-
| tion 1t was Of girl, with a sweetly pensive
expression from her downcast eye, seated,
with her beautifully rounded arms encircling
the neck Of a faithful looking hound, which
| was standing on a fOotstool, looking earnestly
up into the face Of his mistress; behind her
on pedestal was the boy god, leaning on her
shoulder, and mischievously and contemptu-
ousiy pointing to the ehound-underneath were
written tho words, "Ah sill etatt aussif-
dele "-(Ah, if he were as faithful (Which
| the maiden is supposed to say, alluding to the
| faithlessness and fckleness of love, and the
| fidelity of the dog
| Enchanting! exquisite ~ exclaimed Au-
| brey; "search all the printshops, you ii never
find anything half SO lovely 1t is almost
| woEthy-You shall have Castor and Pollux in
marble -
"But Cupidn'
"True," said Aubrey, and those words
| seemed to have Jared and caused to vibrate
some discordant string; for, after pause, he
said, with much warmth, "true, Cupid died
| long ago !''
ies," said Helen, 4" some day last winter,
during the pressure
Longer STILL" sighed Aubrey; and he
added with bitterness, there are those who
think he long since snapped his strings in des-
pair of ever piercing another heart, and, like
Nlobe, wept himself to stone"
"Oh, he did, he did, and his little image
| stands on the pedestal in my own boudoir,"
| said the gay and thoughtless but really affec
tlonafe girl, clapping her little hands together
In her beautiful glee; we can have the
Sen.blance, If not the reality, in the tableau."
"Out upon the senrbiance and reakttv, there
is none," said Aubrey; and he added. in a
low and melancholy tone, "What is love but
| name-a shade that follows wealth or fame
Is it not so, Helen should 1 not deem it so ?''
Now, Of all persons in her little world, Au-
6rey ST Clair was the last among all her very
dear friends, with whom, just at that juncture,
helen Leslie would have wished serious
| tete-d-tete, and just for these reasons, gen tie
reader They had been long afianced-Au.
brey, an orphan, and distant cousin, had
dwelt with her under her fathers roof from
infancy; and Helen felt for him the strongest
affection. though her love partook greatly of
the character Of that which she might have
felt FOR brother He had sOrrOwed when she
sorro@ed and laughed wnen she laughed;
and cherished for her deep, pure, and tender
love; and though impassioned and impetu-
Gus 1t also approached the holy love borne
sister-a love which neither time, distance
| nor Circumstance could change or dissipate
Aubrey st. Clair had been very patient and
untiriDg in his devotion to study-a thought
full, sedate, meditative boy--a reading, DIRE am
ing, enthusiastic youth, he had amassed a
fund Of Information on all subjects, but the
garden Of poesy was his favored realm here
would he stray, lost in wonder and delight;
and, though unknown to any, he had strewn
many beautiful flowers on the Parnassian
mount, and might we'll have hoped to wear
laurels which would have been long green
He lived in a world of his own creations, bright
beyond imagining.
But to return to Helen Though she, in her
I'll,
believing, with her whole soul, and in the
slnglenesS Of her heart there lived not the
being to whom she could more willingly or
more entirely intrust her happiness than to
her dear Aubrey" so she still thought,
though meanwhile she had changed mate
rally. From the artless, confiding ingenious
girl, Helen Leslie had become the beautiful,
enchanting, lovely girl-the fascinating ad-
mired, caressed and idolized belle Yet,
amid all this adulation, enough to turn grave
heads, Helen possessed pure and Affection
ate heart, a clear and lively understanding.
She could not but feel Anbrey's nature to be
widely different from her own. He viewed
already with disgust those pleasures which
leave naught but safety and disquietude be-
On the threshold, and Of which she has tasted
as yet but sparingly, and knew not their
heartlessness and emptiness, but viewed them
arrayed in all the glitter and "ench antment
which distance the view" The admired of
all, the tide of her existence seemed to flow
and to sparkle in an unbroken stream of hap
piness, and we are compelled to own that, in
the bewilderment of the life she led, the
thought of Aubrey, of his feryent, engrosSing
AMI undying attachment-the still, low voice
in Helen 's.bosom that told her of the selfsacri-
fcing, unwaning attachment, of his truth, of
his almost parental solicitude and interest,
was drowned in fashionable follies and in the
levity of the hour
Aubrey st. Clair's manner, tastes and feel
ings ill-fitted him for the syren circle of which
Helen Leslie was the brightest star His soul
scOrned the Observation-Disclosures, the deceitful. +!
ness of pleasures which he felt to be Insult !
cient to confer happiness on rational being |
His nature was enthusiastic and imaginative;
the selfsuficient and superficial coxcombs Of
the day were not society for him-his was the |
SOULS slovelincss-then, how immeasurable the |
distance which separated Aubrey st. Clair
from the throng Of idlers who "followed, fat |
tered and sued" in Helen's train-must he |
not have felt his superiority to such! impos
sible he should not His manners were
gentle, his tone low, his frame was delicate (;
and, though his face was intellectual in the ex-
treme, yet it possessed not that beauty, so
dear, must say, to woman's heart One read |
there of acute sensibility and elevated thoughts
of a superior order of mind and refined OBJ
server would have loved to dwell upon it-so
expressive was it of soul and mind-so COM
pletely an index of all within the casket. Of
proud nature, his feelings were exquisitely
susceptible to the smallest slight or wound,