Her breathing became difficult. No more words came. A few quick fluttering breaths--Elsie was gone. CHAPTER XXXII AT MARY RANDALL'S SUMMER HOME Lake Geneva season was at its close. Most of the lake dwellers had closed their houses and returned to town. For those who remained late autumn had her glories. Woods and groves were gay in foliage. Orchards bowed their heads beneath their loads of ripened fruit. In shorn fields the birds, preparing for southern migration, sang of a year crowned with plenty. Vines hung deep about the broad veranda of the villa where Mary Randall was resting from her labors in the company of her uncle and aunt. She sat alone in a corner of the veranda one sunny day, waiting for the arrival of the journalist Ambrose, one of her most efficient aids. Anna, her faithful maid came with an armful of flowers and began arranging them on the table. "You love those old-fashioned flowers even more than I do, I believe, Anna," said Miss Randall. "I do love them. They seem like the blossom of my vacation," said Anna. "That's a pretty way to put it. Your vacation is to be a good long one. You have certainly earned it. You're as worn as I am, after our battle. I never should have got through it without you." "Thank you, Miss Mary. Here comes the flower of all your workers,--Mr. Ambrose," said the girl, and withdrew. "Good news," said the journalist cheerfully, coming to greet his friend, and noting with a sudden swift pleasure that a faint blush came to her cheeks and a new light to her eyes as she welcomed him. "Good news! As I was coming away the newspapers were out with the extra. The city council held a special meeting during the afternoon. They have abolished the segregated district. The city has formally adopted the policy of suppressing instead of circumscribing vice." "That is the beginning of the end," said Miss Randall. "If our campaign has won that we have won all I hoped for." "Yet many people believe that we failed." "Even if we had failed we should have made progress. Every movement of this kind leaves its mark on the public conscience. It makes work easier for other crusaders." "Yes," responded Ambrose, "because it brings out the facts. Facts are lasting. They cannot die." "Progress comes through inculcation of these facts, by means of education. Schools and churches--and parents--must concentrate on the moral improvement of the rising generation, or we wrestle ineffectively." "The kind of vice you have been specially fighting will be extinct within the next ten years," said Ambrose. "I don't mean that we shall have suppressed vice. That is a task for centuries. But our people in the United States will not stand for this trade in girls."