It became clear only later, a decade after that troubled departure, that Consul François Ducasse had unwittingly prepared a future for his son that was to turn out very different from the one he had imagined. If he had at least known that Isidore Ducasse was to pass the half-way point in his life before all his baby teeth came out, certainly the epilogue of this story would be less tragic, and we readers would be spared from witnessing what was to happen.