Very wise person saving one's face (6)
I believe the answer is:
visage
'face' is the definition.
(visage is a kind of face)
'very wise person saving one's' is the wordplay.
'very' becomes 'v' (abbreviation).
'wise person' becomes 'sage' (I've seen this before).
'saving' is an insertion indicator.
'one' becomes 'i' (Roman numeral).
'v'+'sage'='vsage'
'vsage' placed around 'i' is 'VISAGE'.
(Other definitions for visage that I've seen before include "A person's face, countenance" , "Mug" , "Clock" , "Face, aspect" .)