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Show 273 fragile body, said "Congratulations" into her ear and helped her up out of the pool, where two lady missionaries waited with a large towel and went with her while she padded off, wet feet slapping, to the locker room. When she was gone he was able to breathe again. The next morning, Sunday, Lorin, Sorenson, and two other elders confirmed her at the testimony meeting in the local branch. Richard watched from the front row as the eight hands were laid on her head. They all bowed their heads and Sorenson said the confirmation prayer. When it was over she looked up at them all, each in turn, grinning. There was an unexpected coda. Early on in their visits to the Klines it had become clear to Lorin and Sorenson that Richard was not having any. Whatever his honest impatience with the doctrines and mysteries heating up his home and brought there by these two dark-suited strangers who had penetrated it, it was clear that he had found a weapon in being able to chuckle at his wife's enthusiasms. It was, Lorin suspected, the only psychological edge the poor devil had on her. Lorin had not minded writing him off; in fact he took a certain pleasure in talking about things he knew Richard would on principle not believe. Richard was short and slight, and looked too young to own a house. He worked in the escrow department of a bank in Ann Arbor and his father had cosigned the note enabling them to arrange a conventional mortgage since he did not qualify for a GI one. He had recently graduated from college with a degree in marketing and a minor in intellectual traditions, and had been married to Alice not much more than a year. He had no hobbies but was thinking of taking up photography and setting up his own darkroom in the garage because he wanted to |