Sentence:  In Montreal, George Stephen was also thinking about money while he walked in sober mood from the Bank to the Canadian Pacific offices; one of the best-known figures in the city ... his passage along St. James Street was noted by many, and he nodded <WSD>abstractedly</WSD> to innumerable acquaintances. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  With absence of mind (From the early 19th century.).