I always wondered a bit about Meredith Wilson's line in 'The Sadder But Wiser Girl for Me' in The Music Man about "I flinch, I sigh, when the lass with the delicate air goes by; I hope, and I pray, for Hester to win just one more 'A'" and I always thought the 'delicate air' meant too refined to be interested in a flirtation. It sounded as if it could be another allusion like the 'A' but I was not familiar with this older song or the expression. Is it also possible the 'delicate air' requiring a bit of a cough, laugh, nudge, wink meant it was only an air, a misleading appearance, of being beyond approach?