Bit by bit, almost without realizing it, Don Fabrizio told Don Calogero about his own affairs, which were numerous, complex, and little known to himself; this was not due to any defect of intelligence, but to a kind of contemptuous indifference about matters he considered low, though deep down this attitude was really due to laziness and the ease with which he had always got out of difficulties by selling off a few more hundred of his thousands of acres.
