Smart and very quietly absorbed in retrospective study (6)
I believe the answer is:
dapper
'smart' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'quietly absorbed in retrospective study' is the wordplay.
'quietly' becomes 'pp' (musical abbreviation for pianissimo).
'absorbed in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'retrospective' says the letters should be written in reverse.
'study' becomes 'read' (synonyms).
'read' backwards is 'daer'.
'pp' placed within 'daer' is 'DAPPER'.
'and very' is the link.
I am not very happy about this link. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for dapper that I've seen before include "Neat and smart in appearance" , "Smart - well presented" , "Quick" , "Well turned out" , "Neat, spruce" .)