GR translation: rarely enough to matter

[Mike Jing]

V345.21-28, P350.25-33   What did Tchitcherine have to say? Was
Tchitcherine there at all? sitting back in the dingy room while the
lift cables slapped and creaked through the walls, and down in the
street, rarely enough to matter, a droshky rattled whip-snapping over
these black old cobbles? Or while snow beat at the grimy windows? How
far, in the eyes of those who would send him to Central Asia, was too
far: would his simple presence in these rooms have gotten him death
automatically . . . or was there still, even at this stage of things,
enough slack to let him reply?

What does "rarely enough to matter" mean?
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Pynchon-l / http://www.waste.org/mail/?list=pynchon-l