I'd find a girl, out to save boy, modest (4,2,8)
I believe the answer is:
fair to middling
'modest' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'i'd find a girl out to save' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'i'd' could be 'id' and 'id' is located in the answer.
'a' is within the answer.
'girl' could be 'lin' and 'lin' is present in the answer.
'to' is present in the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'boy' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for fair to middling that I've seen before include "Unremarkable" , "OK?" , "unexceptional" , "average" , "Not bad" .)