Sokolov wrote that the corn could not be sold, that it was fetching only five and a half roubles, and that more than that could not be got for it.

The other letter was from his sister.

She scolded him for her business being still unsettled.

"Well, we must sell it at five and a half if we can't get more," Levin decided the first question, which had always before seemed such a weighty one, with extraordinary facility on the spot.