Moreover, this question on Levin's part was not quite in good faith.

Madame Sviazhskaya had just told him at tea that they had that summer invited a German expert in bookkeeping from Moscow, who for a consideration of five hundred roubles had investigated the management of their property, and found that it was costing them a loss of three thousand odd roubles.

She did not remember the precise sum, but it appeared that the German had worked it out to the fraction of a farthing.