Guilelessness of civil engineer in pub in past times (9)
I believe the answer is:
innocence
'guilelessness' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'civil engineer in pub in past times' is the wordplay.
'civil engineer' becomes 'CE' (abbreviation).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'pub' becomes 'inn' (an inn is a type of pub).
'in past times' becomes 'once' (I can't explain this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'inn'+'once'='innonce'
'ce' put within 'innonce' is 'INNOCENCE'.
'of' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for innocence that I've seen before include "''Songs of ... and Experience'' (William Blake)" , "Absence of guilt" , "Freedom from guilt" , "Uncorrupted state" , "probity" .)