LOS ANGELES, Mar. 6 – The reunion Thursday in County Jail between Charles Manson and Susan Atkins was “a joyous one,” according to her lawyer.

Both exploded in laughter as their eyes met for the first time in five months, attorney Richard Caballero said.

“They were happy to see one another. They just kept laughing,” Caballero added after he and his client emerged from an hour-long meeting with Manson in the attorneys’ room of the men’s jail.

Miss Atkins herself fended off most questions by newsmen with a half-smile that, at times, was closer to a pout.

Did Manson give her any orders? Did he suggest she change attorneys?

“Charley doesn’t give orders…Charley doesn’t command,” she replied, striding briskly through a gathering of newsmen to a waiting black-and-white sheriff’s car.

How did Manson look to her after so long a time apart?

“If I told you, you wouldn’t believe me,” she said, with a crooked grin. Then she stepped into the sheriff’s car and was whisked back to Sybil Brand Institute, the women’s jail.

The meeting between Manson, the hippie leader accused of masterminding the Tate-LaBianca murders, and Miss Atkins, a devoted follower, was the first since both were arrested in Death Valley last October as suspects in a car theft ring.

Two months later, both were indicted, along with four other Manson family members for the murders last August — largely on the basis of Miss Atkins’ testimony before the County Grand Jury.

Despite the fact that Miss Atkins’ version of the murders — first told to a cellmate in November — is chiefly responsible for the indictments, Manson exhibited no “hostility” toward her Thursday, Caballero said.

Quite the contrary, the attorney added, Manson was solicitous about her treatment in jail and “they talked about friends and they talked about people who visited them in jail.”

But all was not sweetness and light once the banter ended and the lawyer and the 35-year-old ex-convict began discussing the murder case, Caballero said.

That conversation established keen “philosophical differences” between him and Manson, who is acting as his own attorney, Caballero said.

Caballero noted that Manson is “interested in a common defense” for himself and his five codefendants. He declined to specify that as the reason for their differing viewpoints, however.

Miss Atkins was permitted to visit Manson only because he is serving as his own lawyer, and, thus entitled to interview prospective witnesses.

But, the attorney said, “his approach and my approach on how to conduct the case are not the same. We differ on how to treat certain pieces of evidence.”

Manson, he added, offered several suggestions during the noon meeting in the jail, and, said Caballero: “I disagreed with most of them.”

Caballero claimed Manson did not pressure Miss Atkins, 21, to bow to his proposals. “He told her to do what she thinks is right,” Caballero said. “She’s going to take a while to think about it.”

But, the attorney said, if differences between him and Manson cannot be resolved – and Miss Atkins chooses Manson’s way – he, Caballero, will have no choice but to step aside.

“As of now,” he added, he still is her attorney; she has not dismissed him.

Meanwhile, an order which would compel Superior Court to dismiss the murder and conspiracy charges against Manson because of delay in prosecution was sought in the State Court of Appeal.

The petition for a writ of mandate was filed by Daye Shinn, one of several attorneys who have been acting informally in Manson’s behalf.

By JERRY COHEN