The torrent of public verdicts that cascaded over the d'Hautevilles made it clear just how momentous had been Gonzalve's decision to fight for Frederick by going to law. Not only had their problems been retold so many times that Gonzalve and Ellen became stock players in countless family law morality plays, but the trial had been a transformative legal event for both of them. It had been, using Wilhelm Dilthey's critical distinction, not mere “experience” but “an experience.” Unlike commonplace, unstructured events that are accepted and endured without major alterations in a person's life, the trial stood apart as a distinct and formative event for both Ellen and Gonzalve. Like their marriage and Frederick's birth, it had transformed their lives. Unlike those events, however, the trial had primarily been a legal experience. As such, it became the d'Hautevilles’ most important lesson in law.

Struggling to comes to terms with their trial experience, Ellen and Gonzalve had to confront the reality that the verdict of the Philadelphia Court of General Sessions had not ended their encounters with the law. On the contrary, recourse to the courtroom condemned them to remain in its shadow until Frederick became an adult. Instead of a single experience in a Philadelphia courtroom, the law had become a permanent reality of their lives. Cast into this legal purgatory, each parent had to continue playing the part scripted for them in their courtroom stories.