Perplexing passage on ED

From a letter to the author:

"'Dickinson is the poet who means more and more to me as the years pass...Her poems think as they unfold--that's my dream! My hope is to understand her great art before I die.' When I jokingly suggested that his line stemmed from 'the seldom-mentioned Serbian side' of her family, Simic offered the following genealogy: 'I believe they were Russian. Came out of Dostoyevsky's rooming house for poor students. A family of anarchists who kept their children out of school. Taught them themselves. They read so much they all wore thick glasses by the time they were four years old. When they came to America they opened a delicatessen in Massachusetts. Miss Emily used to go there on the q.t. for gherkins. She thought she was pregnant. She was! With theology, poetry, and philosophy.'"

--Page 136, "Her Moment of Brocade...," Feeling As Foreign Language

This passage about Emily Dickinson puzzled me in my 20s and I still don't know if I get it (on the q.t. for gherkins?)