On the platform we found Monsieur de Marquet and his Registrar, who
represented the Judicial Court of Corbeil. Monsieur Marquet had
spent the night in Paris, attending the final rehearsal, at the
Scala, of a little play of which he was the unknown author, signing
himself simply "Castigat Ridendo."
Monsieur de Marquet was beginning to be a "noble old gentleman."
Generally he was extremely polite and full of gay humour, and in
all his life had had but one passion,--that of dramatic art.
Throughout his magisterial career he was interested solely in cases
capable of furnishing him with something in the nature of a drama.
Though he might very well have aspired to the highest judicial
positions, he had never really worked for anything but to win a
success at the romantic Porte-Saint-Martin, or at the sombre Odeon.
Because of the mystery which shrouded it, the case of The Yellow
Room was certain to fascinate so theatrical a mind. It interested
him enormously, and he threw himself into it, less as a magistrate
eager to know the truth, than as an amateur of dramatic embroglios,
tending wholly to mystery and intrigue, who dreads nothing so much
as the explanatory final act.
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