half-abstractedly

Updated: August 18, 2026

Jen, clear-faced and true, invited him to sit and eat, and he, starting half-abstractedly, responded to her "Draw nigh, Sergeant Tom," and sat down. Commonplace as the words were, they thrilled him, for he thought of a table of his own in a home of his own, and the same words spoken everyday, but without the "Sergeant," simply "Tom."

Gilbert Parker - Pierre and His People, [Tales of the Far North], Complete