The Fountainhead

  "But, Dominique," he said pleasantly, "I was only telling you why Peter Keating is such an interesting person."

  Her hair flew back like a mop, and her face followed, she dropped down on her chair, looking at him, her mouth loose and very ugly.

  "Dominique," he said softly, "you're obvious. Much too obvious."

  "Get out of here."

  "Well, I've always said that you underestimated me. Call on me next time you need some help."

  At the door, he turned to add:

  "Of course, personally, I think Peter Keating is the greatest architect we've got."

  That evening, when she came home, the telephone rang.

  "Dominique, my dear," a voice gulped anxiously over the wire, "did you really mean all that?"

  "Who is this?"

  "Joel Sutton. I ..."

  "Hello, Joel. Did I mean what?"

  "Hello, dear, how are you? How is your charming father? I mean, did you mean all that about the Enright House and that fellow Roark? I mean, what you said in your column today. I'm quite a bit upset, quite a bit. You know about my building? Well, we're all ready to go ahead and it's such a bit of money, I thought I was very careful about deciding, but I trust you of all people, I've always trusted you, you're a smart kid, plenty smart, if you work for a fellow like Wynand I guess you know your stuff. Wynand knows buildings, why, that man's made more in real estate than on all his papers, you bet he did, it's not supposed to be known, but I know it. And you working for him, and now I don't know what to think. Because, you see, I had decided, yes, I had absolutely and definitely decided--almost--to have this fellow Roark, in fact I told him so, in fact he's coming over tomorrow afternoon to sign the contract, and now ... Do you really think it will look like a feather-boa?"

  "Listen, Joel," she said, her teeth set tight together, "can you have lunch with me tomorrow?"

  She met Joel Sutton in the vast, deserted dining room of a distinguished hotel. There were few, solitary guests among the white tables, so that each stood out, the empty tables serving as an elegant setting that proclaimed the guest's exclusiveness. Joel Sutton smiled broadly. He had never escorted a woman as decorative as Dominique.

  "You know, Joel," she said, facing him across a table, her voice quiet, set, unsmiling, "it was a brilliant idea, your choosing Roark."

  "Oh, do you think so?"

  "I think so. You'll have a building that will be beautiful, like an anthem. A building that will take your breath away--also your tenants. A hundred years from now they will write about you in history--and search for your grave in Potter's Field."

  "Good heavens, Dominique, what are you talking about?"

  "About your building. About the kind of building that Roark will design for you. It will be a great building, Joel."

  "You mean, good?"

  "I don't mean good. I mean great."

  "It's not the same thing."

  "No, Joel, no, it's not the same thing."

  "I don't like this 'great' stuff."

  "No. You don't. I didn't think you would. Then what do you want with Roark? You want a building that won't shock anybody. A building that will be folksy and comfortable and safe, like the old parlor back home that smells of clam chowder. A building that everybody will like, everybody and anybody. It's very uncomfortable to be a hero, Joel, and you don't have the figure for it."

  "Well, of course I want a building that people will like. What do you think I'm putting it up for, for my health?"

  "No, Joel. Nor for your soul."

  "You mean, Roark's no good?"

  She sat straight and stiff, as if all her muscles were drawn tight against pain. But her eyes were heavy, half closed, as if a hand were caressing her body. She said:

  "Do you see many buildings that he's done? Do you see many people hiring him? There are six million people in the city of New York. Six million people can't be wrong. Can they?"

  "Of course not."

  "Of course."

  "But I thought Enright ..."

  "You're not Enright, Joel. For one thing, he doesn't smile so much. Then, you see, Enright wouldn't have asked my opinion. You did. That's what I like you for."

  "Do you really like me, Dominique?"

  "Didn't you know that you've always been one of my great favorites?"

  "I ... I've always trusted you. I'll take your word anytime. What do you really think I should do?"

  "It's simple. You want the best that money can buy--of what money can buy. You want a building that will be--what it deserves to be. You want an architect whom other people have employed, so that you can show them that you're just as good as they are."

  "That's right. That's exactly right.... Look, Dominique, you've hardly touched your food."

  "I'm not hungry."

  "Well, what architect would you recommend?'

  "Think, Joel. Who is there, at the moment, that everybody's talking about? Who gets the pick of all commissions? Who makes the most money for himself and his clients? Who's young and famous and safe and popular?"

  "Why, I guess ... I guess Peter Keating."

  "Yes, Joel. Peter Keating."

  "I'm so sorry, Mr. Roark, so terribly sorry, believe me, but after all, I'm not in business for my health ... not for my health nor for my soul ... that is, I mean, well, I'm sure you can understand my position. And it's not that I have anything against you, quite the contrary, I think you're a great architect. You see that's just the trouble, greatness is fine but it's not practical. That's the trouble, Mr. Roark, not practical, and after all you must admit that Mr. Keating has much the better name and he's got that ... that popular touch which you haven't been able to achieve."

  It disturbed Mr. Sutton that Roark did not protest. He wished Roark would try to argue; then he could bring forth the unanswerable justifications which Dominique had taught him a few hours ago. But Roark said nothing; he had merely inclined his head when he heard the decision. Mr. Sutton wanted desperately to utter the justifications, but it seemed pointless to try to convince a man who seemed convinced. Still, Mr. Sutton loved people and did not want to hurt anyone.

  "As a matter of fact, Mr. Roark, I'm not alone in this decision. As a matter of fact, I did want you, I had decided on you, honestly I had, but it was Miss Dominique Francon, whose judgment I value most highly, who convinced me that you were not the right choice for this commission--and she was fair enough to allow me to tell you that she did."

  He saw Roark looking at him suddenly. Then he saw the hollows of Roark's cheeks twisted, as if drawn in deeper and his mouth open: he was laughing, without sound but for one sharp intake of breath.

  "What on earth are you laughing at, Mr. Roark?"

  "So Miss Francon wanted you to tell me this?"

  "She didn't want me to, why should she?--she merely said that I could tell you if I wished."

  "Yes, of course."

  "Which only shows her honesty and that she has good reasons for her convictions and will stand by them openly."

  "Yes."

  "Well, what's the matter?"

  "Nothing, Mr. Sutton."

  "Look, it's not decent to laugh like that."

  "No."

  His room was half dark around him. A sketch of the Heller house was tacked, unframed, on a long, blank wall; it made the room seem emptier and the wall longer. He did not feel the minutes passing, but he felt time as a solid thing enclosed and kept apart within the room; time clear of all meaning save the unmoving reality of his body.

  When he heard the knock at the door, he said: "Come in," without rising.

  Dominique came in. She entered as if she had entered this room before. She wore a black suit of heavy cloth, simple like a child's garment, worn as mere protection, not as ornament; she had a high masculine collar raised to her cheeks, and a hat cutting half her face out of sight. He sat looking at her. She waited to see the derisive smile, but it did not come. The smile seemed implicit in the room itself, in her standing there, halfway across that room. She
took her hat off, like a man entering a house, she pulled it off by the brim with the tips of stiff fingers and held it hanging down at the end of her arm. She waited, her face stern and cold; but her smooth pale hair looked defenseless and humble. She said:

  "You are not surprised to see me."

  "I expected you tonight."

  She raised her hand, bending her elbow with a tight economy of motion, the bare minimum needed, and flung her hat across to a table. The hat's long flight showed the violence in that controlled jerk of her wrist.

  He asked: "What do you want?"

  She answered: "You know what I want," her voice heavy and flat.

  "Yes. But I want to hear you say it. All of it."

  "If you wish." Her voice had the sound of efficiency, obeying an order with metallic precision. "I want to sleep with you. Now, tonight, and at any time you may care to call me. I want your naked body, your skin. your mouth, your hands. I want you--like this--not hysterical with desire--but coldly and consciously--without dignity and without regrets --I want you--I have no self-respect to bargain with me and divide me--I want you--I want you like an animal, or a cat on a fence, or a whore."

  She spoke on a single, level tone, as if she were reciting an austere catechism of faith. She stood without moving, her feet in flat shoes planted apart, her shoulders thrown back, her arms hanging straight at her sides. She looked impersonal, untouched by the words she pronounced, chaste like a young boy.

  "You know that I hate you, Roark. I hate you for what you are, for wanting you, for having to want you. I'm going to fight you--and I'm going to destroy you--and I tell you this as calmly as I told you that I'm a begging animal. I'm going to pray that you can't be destroyed--I tell you this, too--even though I believe in nothing and have nothing to pray to. But I will fight to block every step you take. I will fight to tear every chance you want away from you. I will hurt you through the only thing that can hurt you--through your work. I will fight to starve you, to strangle you on the things you won't be able to reach. I have done it to you today--and that is why I shall sleep with you tonight."

  He sat deep in his chair, stretched out, his body relaxed, and taut in relaxation, a stillness being filled slowly with the violence of future motion.

  "I have hurt you today. I'll do it again. I'll come to you whenever I have beaten you--whenever I know that I have hurt you--and I'll let you own me. I want to be owned, not by a lover, but an an adversary who will destroy my victory over him, not with honorable blows, but with the touch of his body on mine. That is what I want of you, Roark. That is what I am. You wanted to hear it all. You've heard it. What do you wish to say now?"

  "Take your clothes off."

  She stood still for a moment; two hard spots swelled and grew white under the corners of her mouth. Then she saw a movement in the cloth of his shirt, one jolt of controlled breath--and she smiled in her turn, derisively, as he had always smiled at her.

  She lifted her two hands to her collar and unfastened the buttons of her jacket, simply, precisely, one after another. She threw the jacket down on the floor, she took off a thin white blouse, and she noticed the tight black gloves on the wrists of her naked arms. She took the gloves off, pulling at each finger in turn. She undressed indifferently, as if she were alone in her own bedroom.

  Then she looked at him. She stood naked, waiting, feeling the space between them like a pressure against her stomach, knowing that it was torture for him also and that it was as they both wanted it. Then he got up, he walked to her, and when he held her, her arms rose willingly and she felt the shape of his body imprinted into the skin on the inside of her arm as it encircled him, his ribs, his armpit, his back, his shoulder blade under her fingers, her mouth on his, in a surrender more violent than her struggle had been.

  Afterward, she lay in bed by his side, under his blanket, looking at his room, and she asked:

  "Roark, why were you working in that quarry?"

  "You know it."

  "Yes. Anyone else would have taken a job in an architect's office."

  "And then you'd have no desire at all to destroy me."

  "You understand that?"

  "Yes. Keep still. It doesn't matter now."

  "Do you know that the Enright House is the most beautiful building in New York?"

  "I know that you know it."

  "Roark, you worked in that quarry when you had the Enright House in you, and many other Enright Houses, and you were drilling granite like a ..."

  "You're going to weaken in a moment, Dominique, and then you'll regret it tomorrow."

  "Yes."

  "You're very lovely, Dominique."

  "Don't."

  "You're lovely."

  "Roark, I ... I'll still want to destroy you."

  "Do you think I would want you if you didn't?"

  "Roark ..."

  "You want to hear that again? Part of it? I want you, Dominique. I want you. I want you."

  "I ..." She stopped, the word on which she stopped almost audible in her breath.

  "No," he said. "Not yet. You won't say that yet. Go to sleep."

  "Here? With you?"

  "Here. With me. I'll fix breakfast for you in the morning. Did you know that I fix my own breakfast? You'll like seeing that. Like the work in the quarry. Then you'll go home and think about destroying me. Good night, Dominique."

  VIII

  THE BLINDS RAISED OVER THE WINDOWS OF HER LIVING ROOM, THE lights of the city rising to a black horizon halfway up the glass panes, Dominique sat at her desk, correcting the last sheets of an article, when she heard the doorbell. Guests did not disturb her without warning -and she looked up, the pencil held in mid-air, angry and curious. She heard the steps of the maid in the hall, then the maid came in, saying: "A gentleman to see you, madam," a faint hostility in her voice explaining that the gentleman had refused to give his name.

  A man with orange hair?--Dominique wanted to ask, but didn't; the pencil jerked stiffly and she said: "Have him come in."

  Then the door opened; against the light of the hall she saw a long neck and sloping shoulders, like the silhouette of a bottle; a rich, creamy voice said, "Good evening, Dominique," and she recognized Ellsworth Toohey whom she had never asked to her house.

  She smiled. She said: "Good evening, Ellsworth. I haven't seen you for such a long time."

  "You should have expected me now, don't you think so?" He turned to the maid: "Cointreau, please, if you have it, and I'm sure you do."

  The maid glanced at Dominique, wide-eyed; Dominique nodded silently, and the maid went out, closing the door.

  "Busy, of course?" said Toohey, glancing at the littered desk. "Very becoming, Dominique. Gets results, too. You've been writing much better lately."

  She let the pencil fall, and threw an arm over the back of her chair, half turning to him, watching him placidly. "What do you want, Ellsworth?"

  He did not sit down, but stood examining the place with the unhurried curiosity of an expert.

  "Not bad, Dominique. Just about as I'd expect you to have it. A little cold. You know, I wouldn't have that ice-blue chair over there. Too obvious. Fits in too well. Just what people would expect in just that spot. I'd have it carrot red. An ugly, glaring, outrageous red. Like Mr. Howard Roark's hair. That's quite en passant--merely a convenient figure of speech--nothing personal at all. Just one touch of the wrong color would make the whole room. The sort of thing that gives a place elegance. Your flower arrangements are nice. The pictures, too--not bad."

  "All right, Ellsworth, all right, what is it?"

  "But don't you know that I've never been here before? Somehow, you've never asked me. I don't know why." He sat down comfortably, resting an ankle on a knee, one thin leg stretched horizontally across the other, the full length of a tight, gun-metal sock exposed under the trouser cuff, and a patch of skin showing above the sock, bluish-white with a few black hairs. "But then, you've been so unsociable. The past tense, my dear, the past tense. Did you say that
we haven't seen each other for a long time? That's true. You've been so busy--in such an unusual way. Visits, dinners, speak-easies and giving tea parties. Haven't you?"

  "I have."

  "Tea parties--I though that was tops. This is a good room for parties -large-plenty of space to stuff people into--particularly if you're not particular whom you stuff it with--and you're not. Not now. What do you serve them? Anchovy paste and minced egg cut out like hearts?"

  "Caviar and minced onion cut out like stars."

  "What about the old ladies?"

  "Cream cheese and chopped walnuts--in spirals."

  "I'd like to have seen you taking care of things like that. It's wonderful how thoughtful you've become of old ladies. Particularly the filthy rich--with sons-in-law in real estate. Though I don't think that's as bad as going to see Knock Me Flat with Commodore Higbee who has false teeth and a nice vacant lot on the corner of Broadway and Chambers."

  The maid came in with the tray. Toohey took a glass and held it delicately, inhaling, while the maid went out.

  "Will you tell me why the secret service department--I won't ask who--and why the detailed reports on my activities?" Dominique said indifferently.

  "You can ask who. Anyone and everyone. Don't you suppose people are talking about Miss Dominique Francon in the role of famous hostess -so suddenly? Miss Dominique Francon as a sort of second Kiki Holcombe, but much better--oh much!--much subtler, much abler, and then, just think, how much more beautiful. It's about time you made some use of that superlative appearance of yours that any woman would cut your throat for. It's still being wasted, of course, if one thinks of form in relation to its proper function, but at least some people are getting some good out of it. Your father, for instance. I'm sure he's delighted with this new life of yours. Little Dominique being friendly to people. Little Dominique who's become normal at last. He's wrong, of course, but it's nice to make him happy. A few others, too..Me, for instance. Though you'd never do anything just to make me happy, but then, you see, that's my lucky faculty--to extract joy from what was not intended for me at all, in a purely selfless way."

  "You're not answering my question."

  "But I am. You asked why the interest in your activities--and I answer: because they make me happy. Besides, look, one could be astonished--though shortsightedly--if I were gathering information on the activities of my enemies. But not to be informed about the actions of my own side--really, you know, you didn't think I'd be so unskilled a general, and whatever else you might think of me, you've never thought me unskilled."