And one for me.
Then I tapped on their door. Priscilla called out, `Come in, Mama!’ She sounded
happy.
I opened the door and held out the robes. `Good morning, darlings. One for each of
you. Breakfast in twenty minutes.’
Priscilla bounced out of bed and kissed me. Donald approached more slowly but did
not seem much troubled at being caught in his skin by fierce old Mama. The room
reeked even more than 1 remembered.
Something brushed past my legs – Her Serene Highness. She jumped up on the bed and
started purring loudly. Priscilla said, `Mama, she bumped against the door last
night, making a terrible racket, so I got up and let her in. She stayed with us a
short while, then she jumped down, and demanded that I open the door again. So I
did, and closed it behind her. It could not have been a half-hour before she was
banging on the door again. This time I ignored her. Uh… we were busy.’
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‘She resents closed doors,’ I explained. ‘Any closed door. I leave mine ajar and she
spent the rest of the night with me. Or most of it. Hmm – She’s Susan’s cat and you
have Susan’s room. Do you want to move? Otherwise she is likely to wake you at any
hour.’
‘No, I’ll just train Donnie to get up and hold the door for her.’
‘Now see here, Slugger -‘
I left.
I stirred up muffins and popped a Pyrex pan of them into the oven on a six -minute
cycle. While the muffins were baking I set up baked eggs wrapped in bacon in another
muffin pan. When the oven pinged, I transferred the muffins to the warmer, reset the
cycle and put in the bacon and eggs. While they cooked, I poured orange juice and
milk, and started the samovar to cycle. That left me time to set the breakfast table
with happy mats and gaudy Mexican crockery – a cheerful table.
Priscilla appeared. ‘Donnie will be right down. May I help?’
‘Yes, dear. Go out into the back yard and cut some yellow roses for that bowl in the
middle. Make it quick; I am about to serve the plates. Polly Down off that table!
Take her with you, please. She knows better but she always crowds the limits.’
I served the plates and sat down just as Donald appeared. `May I help?’
`Yes, you can keep the cat off the table.’
`I mean, really help.’
‘You’ll find that a full-time job.’
Thirty minutes later I was working on my second cup of tea while Priscilla served
another pan of muffins and more bacon, and opened another jar of Knott’s Berry Farm
marmalade. I was feeling as contented as Princess Polly looked. When you come right
down to it, children and cats are more fun than stocks, bonds, and other securities.
I would get these two married (but not to each other!) and then it would be soon
enough for Maureen, the Hetty Green of the fast new world, to tackle the Harriman
empire, force it to stand and deliver. ‘Polly! Get out of that marmalade! Donald,
you are supposed to be watching that cat.’
`I am watching her, Mama. But she’s faster than I am.’
`And smarter.’
`Who said that? Who said that? Slugger, you’ll rue the day.’
‘Stop it, children. Time we talked about the Howard Foundation.’
Quite a while later Donald said, `Let me get this straight. You’re saying that I
have to marry a girl on my list and Priss has to marry a man on her list?’
‘No, no, no! Nothing of the sort. Nobody has to marry anybody. If you do marry, it
will be your own free choice and it need not be another Howard. There is just one
marriage you can’t make and that is to each other. Oh, you could marry each other;
there are thousands of incestuous marriages in this country – so some Kinseys have
calculated. You could do it by cutting out on your own again, supporting yourselves
somewhere else and somehow until you both look old enough to convince a county cerk