The Fountainhead (61 page)

“Hell, no,” said Wynand. “I want to know the name of the sculptor.”

He wondered why Toohey did not like the question; there was something more than disappointment in Toohey’s face.

“The sculptor?” said Toohey. “Wait ... let me see ... I think I did know it.... It’s Steven ... or Stanley ... Stanley something or other.... Honestly, I don’t remember.”

“If you knew enough to buy this, you knew enough to ask the name and never forget it.”

“I’ll look it up, Mr. Wynand.”

“Where did you get this?”

“In some art shop, you know, one of those places on Second Avenue.”

“How did it get there?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t ask. I bought it because I knew the model.”

“You’re lying about that. If that were all you saw in it, you wouldn’t have taken the chance you took. You know that I’ve never let anyone see my gallery. Did you think I’d allow you the presumption of contributing to it? Nobody has ever dared offer me a gift of that kind. You wouldn’t have risked it, unless you were sure, terribly sure, of how great a work of art this is. Sure that I’d have to accept it. That you’d beat me. And you have.”

“I’m glad to hear it, Mr. Wynand.”

“If you wish to enjoy that, I’ll tell you also that I hate seeing this come from you. I hate your having been able to appreciate it. It doesn’t fit you. Though I was obviously wrong about you: you’re a greater art expert than I thought you were.”

“Such as it is, I’ll have to accept this as a compliment and thank you, Mr. Wynand.”

“Now what was it you wanted? You intended me to understand that you won’t let me have this unless I grant an interview to Mrs. Peter Keating?”

“Why, no, Mr. Wynand. I’ve made you a present of it. I intended you only to understand that this is Mrs. Peter Keating.”

Wynand looked at the statue, then back at Toohey.

“Oh you damn fool!” said Wynand softly.

Toohey stared at him, bewildered.

“So you really did use
this
as a red lamp in a window?” Wynand seemed relieved; he did not find it necessary to hold Toohey’s glance now. “That’s better, Toohey. You’re not as smart as I thought for a moment.”

“But, Mr. Wynand, what ...?”

“Didn’t you realize that this statue would be the surest way to kill any possible appetite I might have for your Mrs. Keating?”

“You haven’t seen her, Mr. Wynand.”

“Oh, she’s probably beautiful. She might be more beautiful than this. But she can’t have what that sculptor has given her. And to see that same face, but without any meaning, like a dead caricature—don’t you think one would hate the woman for that?”

“You haven’t seen her.”

“Oh, all right, I’ll see her. I told you you should be allowed to get away with your stunt completely or not at all. I didn’t promise you to lay her, did I? Only to see her.”

“That is all I wanted, Mr. Wynand.”

“Have her telephone my office and make an appointment.”

“Thank you, Mr. Wynand.”

“Besides, you’re lying about not knowing the name of that sculptor. But it’s too much bother to make you tell me. She’ll tell me.”

“I’m sure she’ll tell you. Though why should I lie?”

“God knows. By the way, if it had been a lesser sculptor, you’d have lost your job over this.”

“But, after all, Mr. Wynand, I have a contract.”

“Oh, save that for your labor unions, Elsie! And now I think you should wish me a good night and get out of here.”

“Yes, Mr. Wynand. I wish you a good night.”

Wynand accompanied him to the hall. At the door Wynand said:

“You’re a poor businessman, Toohey. I don’t know why you’re so anxious to have me meet Mrs. Keating. I don’t know what your racket is in trying to get a commission for that Keating of yours. But whatever it is, it can’t be so valuable that you should have been willing to part with a thing like this in exchange.”

II

“W
HY DIDN’T YOU WEAR YOUR EMERALD BRACELET?” ASKED Peter Keating. “Gordon Prescott’s so-called fiancée had everybody gaping at her star sapphire.”

“I’m sorry, Peter. I shall wear it next time,” said Dominique.

“It was a nice party. Did you have a good time?”

“I always have a good time.”

“So did I ... Only ... Oh God, do you want to know the truth?”

“No.”

“Dominique, I was bored to death. Vincent Knowlton is a pain in the neck. He’s such a damn snob. I can’t stand him.” He added, cautiously: “I didn’t show it, did I?”

“No. You behaved very well. You laughed at all his jokes—even when no one else did.”

“Oh, you noticed that? It always works.”

“Yes, I noticed that.”

“You think I shouldn’t, don’t you?”

“I haven’t said that.”

“You think it’s ... low, don’t you?”

“I don’t think anything is low.”

He slumped farther in his armchair; it made his chin press uncomfortably against his chest; but he did not care to move again. A fire crackled in the fireplace of his living room. He had turned out all the lights, save one lamp with a yellow silk shade; but it created no air of intimate relaxation, it only made the place look deserted, like a vacant apartment with the utilities shut off. Dominique sat at the other end of the room, her thin body fitted obediently to the contours of a straight-backed chair; she did not look stiff, only too poised for comfort. They were alone, but she sat like a lady at a public function; like a lovely dress dummy in a public show window—a window facing a busy intersection.

They had come home from a tea party at the house of Vincent Knowlton, a prominent young society man, Keating’s new friend. They had had a quiet dinner together, and now their evening was free. There were no other social engagements till tomorrow.

“You shouldn’t have laughed at theosophy when you spoke to Mrs. Marsh,” he said. “She believes in it.”

“I’m sorry. I shall be more careful.”

He waited to have her open a subject of conversation. She said nothing. He thought suddenly that she had never spoken to him first—in the twenty months of their marriage. He told himself that that was ridiculous and impossible; he tried to recall an occasion when she had addressed him. Of course he had; he remembered her asking him: “What time will you be back tonight?” and “Do you wish to include the Dixons for Tuesday’s dinner?” and many things like that.

He glanced at her. She did not look bored or anxious to ignore him. She sat there, alert and ready, as if his company held her full interest; she did not reach for a book, she did not stare at some distant thought of her own. She looked straight at him, not past him, as if she were waiting for a conversation. He realized that she had always looked straight at him, like this; and now he wondered whether he liked it. Yes, he did, it allowed him no cause to be jealous, not even of her hidden thoughts. No, he didn’t, not quite, it allowed no escape, for either one of them.

“I’ve just finished
The Gallant Gallstone,”
he said. “It’s a swell book. It’s the product of a scintillating brain, a Puck with tears streaming down his face, a golden-hearted clown holding for a moment the throne of God.”

“I read the same book review. In the Sunday
Banner
.”

“I read the book itself. You know I did.”

“That was nice of you.”

“Huh?” He heard approval and it pleased him.

“It was considerate toward the author. I’m sure she likes to have people read her book. So it was kind to take the time—when you knew in advance what you’d think of it.”

“I didn’t know. But I happen to agree with the reviewer.”

“The
Banner
has the best reviewers.”

“That’s true. Of course. So there’s nothing wrong in agreeing with them, is there?”

“Nothing whatever. I always agree.”

“With whom?”

“With everybody.”

“Are you making fun of me, Dominique?”

“Have you given me reason to?”

“No. I don’t see how. No, of course I haven’t.”

“Then I’m not.”

He waited. He heard a truck rumbling past, in the street below, and that filled a few seconds; but when the sound died, he had to speak again:

“Dominique, I’d like to know what you think.”

“Of what?”

“Of ... of ...” He searched for an important subject and ended with: “... of Vincent Knowlton.”

“I think he’s a man worth kissing the backside of.”

“For Christ’s sake, Dominique!”

“I’m sorry. That’s bad English and bad manners. It’s wrong, of course. Well, let’s see: Vincent Knowlton is a man whom it’s pleasant to know. Old families deserve a great deal of consideration, and we must have tolerance for the opinions of others, because tolerance is the greatest virtue, therefore it would be unfair to force your views on Vincent Knowlton, and if you just let him believe what he pleases, he will be glad to help you too, because he’s a very human person.”

“Now, that’s sensible,” said Keating; he felt at home in recognizable language. “I think tolerance is very important, because ...” He stopped. He finished, in an empty voice: “You said exactly the same thing as before.”

“Did you notice that,” she said. She said it without question mark, indifferently, as a simple fact. It was not sarcasm; he wished it were; sarcasm would have granted him a personal recognition—the desire to hurt him. But her voice had never carried any personal relation to him—not for twenty months.

He stared into the fire. That was what made a man happy—to sit looking dreamily into a fire, at his own hearth, in his own home; that’s what he had always heard and read. He stared at the flames, unblinking, to force himself into a complete obedience to an established truth. Just one more minute of it and I will feel happy, he thought, concentrating. Nothing happened.

He thought of how convincingly he could describe this scene to friends and make them envy the fullness of his contentment. Why couldn’t he convince himself? He had everything he’d ever wanted. He had wanted superiority—and for the last year he had been the undisputed leader of his profession. He had wanted fame—and he had five thick albums of clippings. He had wanted wealth—and he had enough to insure luxury for the rest of his life. He had everything anyone ever wanted. How many people struggled and suffered to achieve what he had achieved? How many dreamed and bled and died for this, without reaching it? “Peter Keating is the luckiest fellow on earth.” How often had he heard that?

This last year had been the best of his life. He had added the impossible to his possessions—Dominique Francon. It had been such a joy to laugh casually when friends repeated to him: “Peter, how did you ever do it?” It had been such a pleasure to introduce her to strangers, to say lightly: “My wife,” and to watch the stupid, uncontrolled look of envy in their eyes. Once at a large party an elegant drunk had asked him, with a wink declaring unmistakable intentions: “Say, do you know that gorgeous creature over there?” “Slightly,” Keating had answered, gratified, “she’s my wife.”

He often told himself gratefully that their marriage had turned out much better than he had expected. Dominique had become an ideal wife. She devoted herself completely to his interests: pleasing his clients, entertaining his friends, running his home. She changed nothing in his existence: not his hours, not his favorite menus, not even the arrangement of his furniture. She had brought nothing with her, except her clothes; she had not added a single book or ash tray to his house. When he expressed his views on any subject, she did not argue—she agreed with him. Graciously, as a matter of natural course, she took second place, vanishing in his background.

He had expected a torrent that would lift him and smash him against some unknown rocks. He had not found even a brook joining his peaceful river. It was more as if the river went on and someone came to swim quietly in his wake; no, not even to swim—that was a cutting, forceful action—but just to float behind him with the current. Had he been offered the power to determine Dominique’s attitude after their marriage, he would have asked that she behave exactly as she did.

Only their nights left him miserably unsatisfied. She submitted whenever he wanted her. But it was always as on their first night: an indifferent body in his arms, without revulsion, without answer. As far as he was concerned, she was still a virgin: he had never made her experience anything. Each time, burning with humiliation, he decided never to touch her again. But his desire returned, aroused by the constant presence of her beauty. He surrendered to it, when he could resist no longer; not often.

It was his mother who stated the thing he had not admitted to himself about his marriage. “I can’t stand it,” his mother said, six months after the wedding. “If she’d just get angry at me once, call me names, throw things at me, it would be all right. But I can’t stand this.” “What, Mother?” he asked, feeling a cold hint of panic. “It’s no use, Peter,” she answered. His mother, whose arguments, opinions, reproaches he had never been able to stop, would not say another word about his marriage. She took a small apartment of her own and moved out of his house. She came to visit him often and she was always polite to Dominique, with a strange, beaten air of resignation. He told himself that he should be glad to be free of his mother; but he was not glad.

Yet he could not grasp what Dominique had done to inspire that mounting dread within him. He could find no word or gesture for which to reproach her. But for twenty months it had been like tonight: he could not bear to remain alone with her—yet he did not want to escape her and she did not want to avoid him.

“Nobody’s coming tonight?” he asked tonelessly, turning away from the fire.

“No,” she said, and smiled, the smile serving as connection to her next words: “Shall I leave you alone, Peter?”

“No!” It was almost a cry. I must not sound so desperate, he thought, while he was saying aloud: “Of course not. I’m glad to have an evening with my wife all to myself.”

He felt a dim instinct telling him that he must solve this problem, must learn to make their moments together endurable, that he dare not run from it, for his own sake more than hers.

“What would you like to do tonight, Dominique?”

“Anything you wish.”

“Want to go to a movie?”

“Do you?”

“Oh, I don’t know. It kills time.”

“All right. Let’s kill time.”

“No. Why should we? That sounds awful.”

“Does it?”

“Why should we run from our own home? Let’s stay here.”

“Yes, Peter.”

He waited. But the silence, he thought, is a flight too, a worse kind of flight.

“Want to play a hand of Russian Bank?” he asked.

“Do you like Russian Bank?”

“Oh, it kills ti—” He stopped. She smiled.

“Dominique,” he said, looking at her, “you’re so beautiful. You’re always so ... so utterly beautiful. I always want to tell you how I feel about it.”

“I’d like to hear how you feel about it, Peter.”

“I love to look at you. I always think of what Gordon Prescott said. He said that you are God’s perfect exercise in structural mathematics. And Vincent Knowlton said you’re a spring morning. And Ellsworth—Ellsworth said you’re a reproach to every other female shape on earth.”

“And Ralston Holcombe?” she asked.

“Oh, never mind!” he snapped, and turned back to the fire.

I know why I can’t stand the silence, he thought. It’s because it makes no difference to her at all whether I speak or not; as if I didn’t exist and never had existed ... the thing more inconceivable than one’s death—never to have been born.... He felt a sudden, desperate desire which he could identify—a desire to be real to her.

“Dominique, do you know what I’ve been thinking?” he asked eagerly.

“No. What have you been thinking?”

“I’ve thought of it for some time—all by
myself
—I haven’t mentioned it to anyone. And nobody suggested it. It’s my own idea.”

“Why, that’s fine. What is it?”

“I think I’d like to move to the country and build a house of our own. Would you like that?”

“I’d like it very much. Just as much as you would. You want to design a home for yourself?”

“Hell, no. Bennett will dash one off for me. He does all our country homes. He’s a whiz at it.”

“Will you like commuting?”

“No, I think that will be quite an awful nuisance. But you know, everybody that’s anybody commutes nowadays. I always feel like a damn proletarian when I have to admit that I live in the city.”

“Will you like to see trees and a garden and the earth around you?”

“Oh, that’s a lot of nonsense. When will I have the time? A tree’s a tree. When you’ve seen a newsreel of the woods in spring, you’ve seen it all.”

“Will you like to do some gardening? People say it’s very nice, working the soil yourself.”

“Good God, no! What kind of grounds do you think we’d have? We can afford a gardener, and a good one—so the place will be something for the neighbors to admire.”

“Will you like to take up some sport?”

“Yes, I’ll like that.”

“Which one?”

“I think I’ll do better with my golf. You know, belonging to a country club right where you’re one of the leading citizens in the community is different from occasional week ends. And the people you meet are different. Much higher class. And the contacts you make ...” He caught himself, and added angrily: “Also, I’ll take up horseback riding.”

“I like horseback riding. Do you?”

“I’ve never had much time for it. Well, it does shake your insides unmercifully. But who the hell is Gordon Prescott to think he’s the only he-man on earth and plaster his photo in riding clothes right in his reception room?”

“I suppose you will want to find some privacy?”

“Well, I don’t believe in that desert-island stuff. I think the house should stand in sight of a major highway, so people would point it out, you know, the Keating estate. Who the hell is Claude Stengel to have a country home while I live in a rented flat? He started out about the same time I did, and look where he is and where I am, why, he’s lucky if two and a half men ever heard of him, so why should he park himself in Westchester and ...”