Departed with lady on vacation not long ago (6)
I believe the answer is:
lately
'not long ago' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'departed with lady on vacation' is the wordplay.
'departed' becomes 'late' (I've seen this before).
'with' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'on vacation' says to hollow out the word (remove centre letters).
'lady' with its middle removed is 'ly'.
'late'+'ly'='LATELY'
(Other definitions for lately that I've seen before include "Recently" , "In the recent past" , "In the last few days" , "Not long ago, sounds unpunctual" , "Within recent time" .)