Depart in a hurry as show finished early in gathering (4,3)

'depart in a hurry' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this definition defines the answer.

'show finished early in gathering' is the wordplay.
'finished early' means to remove the last letter (the word finishes earlier than normal).
'in' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'gathering' becomes 'ruff' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'show' with its final letter removed is 'sho'.
'sho' inserted within 'ruff' is 'RUSH OFF'.

'as' is the link.

Can you help me to learn more?