Basil, who had his eyes shut in his abstracted way, said simply: "I beg your pardon."

In an abstracted way he withdrew one of the bullets from his belt and began to twirl it between his fingers.

It seemed that in his remote, abstracted way he actually felt some sympathy.

Glancing down at her face, he saw she' was still frowning, but in an abstracted way.

Why did you choose to present their relationship in this layered, or abstracted, way?

He sat there puffing away at his pipe, staring into the distance in that rather abstracted way that seemed characteristic of him.

He said, "Come in," in an abstracted way and she did.

That pleased him, but only in an abstracted way; his mind was full of what he would have to do to win.

Catherine said in that same abstracted way as before: "Will.

As I sat there, fingering the cards in an abstracted way, some chance led me to observe the small needle-pricks which you have just felt.