You know what'll happen if she does quit, Mary V.You'll be getting your 'Desert Glimpses' out the kitchen window for a month or so, washing dishes while we scurrup around after another cook.

Bedelia--" "Oh, plague _take_ Bedelia!" snapped Mary V.But she nevertheless spent precious minutes wiping the butcher knife on Bedelia's clean dish towel, and putting away the butter and the bread, and mopping up the splatters of loganberry jam.

Getting her "Desert Glimpses" through the kitchen window formed no part of Mary V's plans or desires.
They seemed to Mary V to be precious minutes, although they would otherwise have been spent in the wearisome task of waiting until the ranch was asleep.

She took her jam sandwiches and pickles and cake to her room, chirping a blithe good-night to her unsuspecting parents.

Then, instead of going to bed as she very plainly indicated to those guileless parents that she meant to do, she clothed herself in her riding breeches, shirt, and coat, and was getting her riding shoes and puttees out of the closet when she heard her mother coming.
A girl can do a good deal in a minute, if she really bestirs herself.
Her mother found Mary V sitting before her dressing table with her hair hanging down her back.