Don Calogero’s advice, after listening to the Prince’s report and mentally setting it in order, was both opportune and immediately effective; but the eventual result of such advice, cruelly efficient in conception, and feeble in application by the kindly Don Fabrizio, was that as years went by the Salina were to acquire a reputation as extortioners of their own dependants, a reputation quite unjustified in reality but which helped to destroy their prestige at Donnafugata and Querceta, without in any way halting the collapse of the family fortunes.
