concept
Chetvertnaya bumazhka (25-ruble note)
twenty-five-ruble note
also: четвертная бумажка, четвертная
Period colloquial shorthand for a 25-ruble banknote -- a substantial sum for the time, roughly a skilled worker's monthly wage; Ilovaiskaya's furtive, ultimately aborted attempt to press one on the ruined Likharev at parting is the story's clearest gesture of concrete charity prompted by his confession.
Reading notes
- On the Road §106 a twenty-five-ruble note
A "четвертная" (chetvertnaya, literally "a quarter[-note]") was period colloquial shorthand for a 25-ruble banknote -- a substantial sum for the time, roughly equivalent to a skilled worker's monthly wage. Ilovaiskaya's furtive attempt to press this note on the ruined Likharev, which she ultimately does not carry through (she thrusts it back into her own pocket, blushing), is the story's clearest gesture of her being moved to concrete, if aborted, charity by his confession.