The Fountainhead Part 2, Chapter 4

Keating reads a book by Lois Cook, and reasons that it must be very deep indeed, since he doesn't understand it. He talks to his friends about the book, calling it brilliant. He opens the paper to a drawing of the Enright House by Howard Roark, which looks like crystals rising out of rock, not a building.

Keating visits Toohey to have brunch with him and Catherine. When the conversation shifts to Roark, Toohey asks many odd questions about him, not about his work. Keating and Catherine go for a walk; Keating starts to become annoyed with her.

Keating meets with Lois Cook. She makes him uncomfortable; he tries to compliment her on her book, but she replies that it's tiresome to be understood by everyone. For her house she wants something ugly, simply for the sake of going against what is thought to be beautiful. Keating tries to object, but takes the commission. When it is built, Toohey refers to it as "a cosmic joke."