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The Fountainhead Part 3, Chapter 5
Dominique returns to Keating after only a week on the yacht. He is upset, thinking he won't get the Stoneridge commission; she assures him that he will, and that Gail wants to see him that evening. Peter tries to convince Dominique that he refuses to be hurt, and that he is going to use both of them, but is unconvincing.
Peter visits Wynand. Wynand tells him, briefly, that he will marry Dominique, that she is leaving for Reno the next day, and gives him a check for $250,000 along with a signed contract for Stoneridge. Keating goes to visit Neil Dumont, his new designer, and they go out drinking with Vincent Knowlton and Gordon Prescott. Peter keeps asking them for reassurance that they are friends.
Dominique visits Steven Mallory, as she does once in a while, though she has not seen Roark in twenty months. Since making her statue, they have become very close, and he is always happy to see her. Without her having to ask, he tells her that Roark is in Clayton, Ohio, making a building for Janer's Department Store. She does not tell him about Wynand but says that she is going to Reno for six weeks and that he won't like what she's going to do when she gets back. He starts to tell her about Wynand buying his pieces, but she says she knows already. In response to her questions, Steve tells her that Roark has never asked about her and that Steve has never told Roark that she comes to visit, for Roark's sake. They have tea.
Dominique leaves in the morning for Reno without waking Peter. He goes through the day without emotion, then visits Toohey, needing to see him very badly. Peter gives Toohey a check for ten thousand dollars to give to whatever cause he wants; Peter begs Toohey for reassurance that the only way to live life is to live it for others, that he is unimportant. He tells Toohey that Dominique is to marry Wynand, and Toohey is surprised and upset. After he calms down, he says to Peter that it doesn't matter, that he's only human.
Toohey goes to Alvah Scarret to tell him the news. They both think that Dominique is not someone they want to influence Wynand, and while they can do nothing to stop the marriage, they can take steps to protect the paper. Ellsworth tells Scarret to fire Jimmy Kearns, a promising drama critic with a mind of his own, and replace him with Jules Fougler. Scarret doesn't understand why this is something he should do, but Toohey tells him that eventually he will understand.
Scarret tries to convince Wynand not to marry Dominique, and that her image is not what the public wants for the wife of Gail Wynand. When he sees Wynand is getting angry, he suggests that Dominique write a column about home life for the paper, so she can gain some respect from the women. Wynand refuses and tells Scarret to find all the pictures of Dominique and destroy them. There are to be no stories written about her or about their marriage.
Dominique takes a train to Reno that stops in Clayton, Ohio; she has carefully planned this. She gets out of the train, feeling as though the city and every object in it possesses her, and goes to the site of Janer's Department Store. Though she had not wanted to see Roark tonight, she finds him there. Without taking the time to greet each other, he grabs her elbow and leads her to a place where they sit down and she speaks. She asks him questions about what he does every day, who sees him, what kind of places he goes. She tells him that she is marrying Wynand; he admits that this is worse than Peter Keating. She asks him to tell her in detail about the room where he's staying, and asks to stay with him tonight. He refuses. She tells him that she wants to live with him here, forever, that she wants him to take a meaningless job and give up architecture. He refuses again, saying if he did, she would beg him to go back soon enough. He walks her to the train station, and she leaves.
