Meanings of preoccupied gaze in English

She turned to the window, resuming the wistful, preoccupied gaze down the avenue.

Without stirring, without shifting her horizontal, preoccupied gaze from the wall, she muttered peevishly:

Still pondering on Professor Bottomly's proposed destruction, I turned the letter over idly and my preoccupied gaze rested on the postmark.

Philosophy: After reading a newspaper profile of someone prominent and successful, do you find that you sometimes react with a preoccupied gaze, a brittle smile?

The sentences had struck clearly as answering chimes, impersonally, in their preoccupied gazing.