under-flicker

Updated: May 8, 2025

Boykin hazarded to his neighbour the regret that they had not been so lucky as to "secure the Prince" it was then only that the lady showed, not indeed anything so simple and unprepared as embarrassment, but a faint play of wonder, an under-flicker of amusement, as though recognizing that, by some odd law of social compensation, the crudity of the talk might account for the complexity of the dishes.

Edith Wharton - Madame De Treymes