The Curious Conduct of Judge Legarde

Summary

A chilling psychological portrait unfurls as the esteemed Judge Randolph Legarde, a bastion of judicial rectitude and betrothed to the elegant Agnes Caverly, succumbs to a bizarre neurological affliction. A seemingly innocuous horse-kick to the skull precipitates a profound schism in his psyche, manifesting a terrifying nocturnal alter ego. Each evening, as the tender strains of Schubert's Serenade — Agnes's customary 'good night' — waft through his chambers, an irresistible, lawless impulse seizes him. The venerable judge's refined features contort, his carriage shifts, and he slips into the shadowy guise of a denizen of the underworld, drawn inexorably to the notorious 'Lame Duck' dive. There, immersed in a clandestine existence of thievery and violence, he orchestrates audacious crimes, even planning a raid on his own unsuspecting abode. His dual life becomes increasingly entangled when he falls under the spell of Amelia, a captivating beauty he himself, as Judge Legarde, once condemned to prison. Unaware of the true horror unfolding, Agnes and her father attribute his escalating memory lapses and peculiar behavior to professional exhaustion, steadfastly postponing their nuptials. Only through the clandestine intervention of a brilliant brain specialist, who orchestrates a delicate psychic fusion, is Legarde's fractured mind healed, paving the way for his return to wholeness and his rightful place beside Agnes.

Synopsis

Randolph Legarde, a senior judge of a criminal court, betrothed to Agnes Caverly, is injured by the kick of a horse at the base of his skull. The injury has the effect of establishing in Judge Legarde a dual personality. Miss Caverly, together with her father, a lawyer, is a guest of Judge Legarde and his sister at their apartments. In his courtship, inspired by a feeling of affectionate sentiment, he requests that her "good night" wishes to him be expressed by her playing on the piano, Schubert's Serenade. A few evenings after the accident, as she is rendering this selection, and he listening, he feels an uncontrollable impulse stealing over him to perform some act of lawlessness or violence. The dual personality has its inception, and Judge Legarde, with distorted countenance and the carriage of a thief, suddenly becomes metamorphized into a being of the underworld. He steals out of his house, and on his ramblings through the city, ultimately finds himself the habitué of a den known as the "Lame Duck." Each night this same impulse steals over him, and each morning finds him unconscious at his desk, restored to his original personality. He endeavors to fight off and battle with this evil influence, but without avail. Several thefts and acts of violence occur in the city, which the police authorities are unable to settle upon any one man, but of all these, Judge Legarde is the moving spirit. Allying himself with this band of denizens of the underworld, he becomes infatuated with Amelia, a girl of bewitching beauty, who at the time when Judge Legarde was presiding over his court, was sentenced by him to prison for the theft of a necklace from Miss Caverly, whose maid she was at one time. Amelia meets Legarde in "The Lame Duck" and there charges him with being Judge Legarde. Under the influence of the dual personality he cannot recognize the truth of the accusation, and the girl and the other habitués of the place, impressed by his vehement denial, fail to pursue the subject. He plans a robbery of his own home with the air of "Big Charles" and others. "The Quill," a stool pigeon of the police, reveals the plan of the contemplated theft. They arrive at Judge Legarde's house just at the moment that Big Charles and his pals attempt to escape, and when Judge Legarde undergoes the transformation from the thief to his former good self. Miss Caverly and her father are under the belief that over work and attention to his professional duties are the causes of his strange lapses of memory which Judge Lagarde is subjected to, but never suspecting the real truth. Miss Caverly's marriage to Judge Legarde is deferred until his complete restoration to health. Caverly engages, without Legarde's knowledge, the services of an eminent brain specialist who undertakes to eradicate the dual personality, and at a time when the good personality is about to pass away and the evil one to find its inception, the specialist merges the two into one, finally restores Judge Legarde to permanent health. His marriage to Miss Caverly is consummated.