But, in the end, Toohey’s scheme succeeds in convincing the public that Roark is an enemy of religion. Toohey convinces Stoddard, who blindly follows him, to file a lawsuit against Roark. In the case and in the public furor that surrounds it, Toohey masterminds a concerted attack on Roark’s building, claiming that, as a radical departure from every known principle of religious architecture, it represents an assault on all that has been traditionally held as holy. Most people accept Toohey’s assessment, and Roark is now infamous. At the trial, Dominique, testifying for the prosecution, claims that Roark’s Temple of the Human Spirit should be torn down because mankind is unwilling to live up to its exalted standard. Though testifying for the plaintiff, Dominique makes clear her appraisal that Roark designed a masterpiece of which society is unworthy. The Temple should be torn down, she argues, in order to save it from society.
Stoddard wins the case. After the trial, Dominique accepts Keating’s earlier proposal of marriage. Keating goes ahead with the wedding immediately, despite being scheduled to marry Catherine Halsey, the girl he loves, the following morning. To make matters worse for Roark, construction is stopped on the Aquitania Hotel due to legal problems among the owners. Though Kent Lansing vows to gain legal control of the project and retain Roark to complete it, they both understand that the battles in court will take years to resolve. At the end of Part Two, Roark is once again at a low ebb: He is unable to get commissions, the few he does receive result in construction stoppage or worse, and the woman he loves has left him to marry his enemy. It appears that Ellsworth Toohey’s schemes against him are destined to succeed in ruining his career.
Still, Toohey is unsure of himself. He needs from Roark some confirmation of his power, even if only Roark’s admission that Toohey has succeeded in hurting him. He manufactures reasons to spend time at the renovated Stoddard Home for sickly children (the building once intended to be the Stoddard Temple), hoping to one day meet Roark there. When Roark does appear to examine the botch made of his design, Toohey waits for him. He asks Roark what he thinks of him. Roark answers in simple honesty that he does not think of him. Toohey understands that, though he has succeeded both in taking away commissions from Roark and in making his name notorious, he will never be able to touch Roark’s independent spirit, which will go on designing revolutionary structures.
