John Erik Snyte gives Roark a job right away, declaring his work radical but remarkable. He is the head of a firm where he employs (along with Roark) five designers, each from a different period- classic, gothic, renaissance, miscellaneous, and modern. Every job is a contest; they all design a building, and then he picks the best one and adds to it with pieces of the other four. Roark creates a design for the Benton Department Store, and it is chosen, then "improved upon" by adding things from the other periods. Roark is happy for the experience, but knows he'll never see his own building built in this firm.
Meanwhile, trade unions of builders are striking against the contractors erecting the Noyes-Belmont Hotel. This is creating tension in Francon's office; the designers are idle for a while. The Wynand papers support the contractors and urge them not to give in; Wynand indirectly owns the Noyes-Belmont Hotel. Keating is getting restless; he bumps into Heyer and yells at him for it. One evening he calls Catherine Halsey. He tells her not to talk about the strike or her uncle (Toohey has been writing a column in the Banner for six months, and is rumored to be on the side of the strikers and to be speaking at a meeting of strike sympathizers this evening). Keating goes to visit Catherine after dinner, but she is gone. He knows she must have gone to the meeting, which upsets him. He goes to the meeting and sees her handing out pamphlets; he makes her go inside. The first speaker is Austen Heller. Next, Toohey speaks, and he gets such a powerful reception that it seems to hit Keating on the back of the head. He asks Catherine to leave; she agrees. She is unhappy that she missed her uncle's speech, but says that she would rather have been with Keating. It is rumored that Wynand gave Toohey a raise the next day instead of firing him for speaking at the meeting.
The strike has ended and everything has gone back to normal in Francon's office, until one day when Keating notices that Francon is a little on edge. He sees several draftsmen reading the Banner, and notices a woman asking to see Francon. When she goes in, the receptionist tells him that the woman is Francon's daughter, Dominique Francon. She is incredibly captivating, physically. He is told to read the Banner to find out what is creating the tension in the office; there is an article that Dominique Francon wrote, in which she reviews the latest Francon & Heyer creation, designed by Keating. The review makes fun of all the little ornamentation he has in the building. Soon he forgets the article and remembers only Dominique; he gathers sketches so he can go into the office where she is, but thinks better of it. He is glad that he will finally be able to meet her, even though he feels that it might be better if he didn't.
