-27-

Oh, yeah! This horse!” She grew suddenly excited, eyes widening. “This man had a horse, down by the river? We were walking there, Mom, and then along came this horse, he was beautiful! Oh, Mom, ya should’ve seen him, and the man let me sit on him! Really! I mean, almost a minute!”
Shirley twinkled at Lori with secret amusement. "Himself?" she asked, lifting an eyebrow. On moving to Washington for the shooting of the film, the blonde secretary, who was now virtually one of the family, had lived in the house, occupying an extra bedroom upstairs. Until she'd met the ‘horseman’ at a nearby stable. Lori needed a place to be alone, Shirley then decided, and had moved her to a suite in an expensive hotel and insisted on paying the bill.
“Himself.” Lori smiled in response to Shirley.
“It was a gray horse!” added Stephanie. “Mommy, can’t we get a horse? I mean, could we?”
“We’ll see, baby.”
“When could I have one?”
“We’ll see. Where’s the bird you made?”
Stephanie looked blank for a moment; then turned around to Lori and grinned, her mouth full of braces and shy rebuke. “You told.” Then, “It was a surprise,” she snickered to her mother.
“You mean…”
“With the long funny nose, like you wanted!”
“Oh, Stefs, that’s sweet. Can I see it?”
“No, I still have to paint it. When’s dinner, Mom?”
“Hungry?”
“I’m starving.”
“Gee, it’s not even five. When was lunch?” Shirley asked Lori.
“Oh, twelvish," Lori answered.