The Fountainhead: Ellsworth M. Toohey: 12-13

I haven't mentioned it before, but the Stoddard Temple is designed to feature horizontal lines, rather than vertical, and it is open to the air; plus, there's that statue of the naked woman. In other words, it is unlike any other religious building in the world.

Stoddard returns from his travels just before the scheduled grand opening, is given a surreptitious tour of the Temple by Toohey, and is persuaded to sue Roark because the temple is unlike any other religious building in the world. The suit asks for Roark to pay for alterations to make the space suitable. Oh, and the grand opening is canceled.

Toohey writes a column titled "Sacrilege," excoriating Roark. The column goes on and on in the windiest prose imaginable and oh please make it stop make it stop

The A.G.A. denounces the Stoddard Temple, as do all those councils of fools Toohey organied.

Dominique goes to Toohey's office and Toohey cajoles her and lectures her about Roark and goes on and on and here we go again please make him stop make him stop

The trial opens in February 1931. Each day after the proceedings, Mallory, Heller, Enright, Landing, and Mike the builder (who has worked on every one of Roark's projects) get together to console Roark. Except that he doesn't need consoling, because he is the Übermensch.

Toohey is the first plaintiff witness and he testifies that Stoddard Temple bad bad, and the courtroom audience erupts, and the judge bangs his gavel and threatens to have the court cleared, and oh my my please make the clichés stop make them stop

Roark, acting as his own attorney, does not cross-examine. Keating testifies for the plaintiff and talks about Roark being expelled from school, and Roark bad bad, and it's obvious Keating is very drunk. OK, we knew Keating was a worm, but ... really? And again no cross-examination.

And the usual gang of architectural idiots—among them Holcombe, Prescott, and Snyte—testify that Temple bad bad, and Roark waives cross-examination.

On the fourth day is the last plaintiff's witness: Dominique Francon. And she says, yes, I agree with these witnesses; this Temple is a threat to all of us. Roark's design, honoring the human spirit, depicts man as heroic and striving for excellence. (She does not mention the hubba-hubba depiction of woman.) And this is contrary to the vision of Toohey, who sees man as a mewling beggar, apologizing to the Eternal for his manifold faults. So Roark's Temple is a vision of man's nobility that utterly betrays the viewpoint of the building's sponsor and all right-thinking people. And this time she says it in a way such that people can pick up on the sarcasm.

Roark does not cross-examine. He lays before the judge ten snapshots of the temple, and he rests his defense.

Finding for the plaintiff.

Stoddard announces that the remodeled building will be repurposed as the Hopton Stoddard Home for Subnormal Children.

Dominique submits her trial testimony as the text for the latest installment of her newspaper column. Alvah Scarret says the Banner can't print that. She insists. He cables the column to a vacationing Gail Wynand, asking what to do. Wynand cables back: "Fire the bitch. G.W." Toohey, skulking around the Banner offices, gets a copy of the cable before Scarret does and triumphantly presents it to Dominique. She packs and leaves.

At home, Toohey is visited by his niece Catherine. She's been depressed and unhappy—hasn't read the paper in days. She fears she is turning into a bad person. In her social services job, she has come to feel contempt for the needy people she is supposed to be helping, and she doesn't understand why. Helping the poor was supposed to make her happy! She whines on and on and please please please make her stop

Toohey tells her that she is simply being selfish, which is a perfectly normal thing. He tells her that to stop being unhappy, she must stop wanting things; when her egotism is gone, her unhappiness will end.

The next day Keating comes a-calling. He wants to see Katie, whom he hasn't seen in six months. Alone with her, he confesses he did a very bad thing and afterward went on a bender. He's better now; seeing her makes him feel all better. They should get married! They should elope, day after tomorrow! They agree, and Keating leaves.

Toohey finds Katie sobbing with happiness. She tells him she's not afraid of him any more.