Pay attention to it, or you will be all abroad, when we get deeper into the story.

Clear your mind of the children, or the dinner, or the new bonnet, or what not.

Try if you can't forget politics, horses, prices in the City, and grievances at the club.

I hope you won't take this freedom on my part amiss; it's only a way I have of appealing to the gentle reader.

Lord! haven't I seen you with the greatest authors in your hands, and don't I know how ready your attention is to wander when it's a book that asks for it, instead of a person?
I spoke, a little way back, of my lady's father, the old lord with the short temper and the long tongue.