Going about quietly, being a spy (7)
I believe the answer is:
peeping
'going' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both to do with perception as well as being present participle verbs.
Perhaps you can see an association between them that I can't see?
'quietly being a spy' is the wordplay.
I cannot really understand how this works, but
'quietly' could be 'p' (p for piano and quiet) and 'p' is present in the answer.
'being' could be 'pi' (PI is an example) and 'pi' is found within the answer.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).
'about' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for peeping that I've seen before include ". . . . . . . Tom, furtive observer" , "Looking furtively" .)