His manner, too, was singularly distrait : he neither responded to their salutations nor so much as looked at them, but walked slowly across the room in the light of the failing fire and opening the front door passed out into the darkness.

The result of the long strain was seen later in the afternoon, when he sat locked within the turret-room before the still baffling trunk, distrait , listless and yet agitated, sunk in a settled gloom.

While she and Arthur (who had arrived before me) supplied the children with tea and cake, I tried to engage the Earl in conversation: but he was restless and distrait , and we made little progress.

Nevertheless, she was just at the moment, a little DISTRAIT . She was watching the brilliant scene with a certain air of abstraction, as though her interest in it was, after all, an impersonal thing.

He massaged his right ear with the sole of his left foot in a somewhat distrait manner.

He is silent and distrait . His nerves have been strangely shaken by that sound upon the moor.

At one of the tables sat Paul, calm and distrait . From across the room Jeanne stared freezingly.

So distrait was he and so random his answers, that the wood man took to whistling, and soon branched off upon the track to Burley, leaving Alleyne upon the main Christchurch road.

You may remember that I was distrait , and remained sitting after you had all alighted.

Holmes was curiously distrait , and we walked up and down the garden path for some time in silence.

The opening lacks fantasy, the hero mildly miffed not wildly distrait - whereas Chung (with the Bastille Opera Orchestra on DG) finds edge-of-a-nervousbreakdown intensity.