During the thundering applause, Susan came forward to respond, her face alight, and the audience rose. "If any proof were needed of the progress of the cause for which I have worked, it is here tonight," she said simply. "The presence on the stage of these college women, and in the audience of all those college girls who will someday be the nation's greatest strength, tell their story to the world. They give the highest joy and encouragement to me...."[459] During her visit at the home of Mary Garrett, Susan spoke freely with her and with M. Carey Thomas of the needs of the National American Association, particularly of the Standing Fund of $100,000 of which she had dreamed and which she had started to raise. Now, like an answer to prayer, Mary Garrett and President Thomas, fresh from their successful money-raising campaigns for Johns Hopkins and Bryn Mawr, offered to undertake a similar project for woman suffrage, proposing to raise $60,000--$12,000 a year for the next five years. "As we sat at her feet day after day between sessions of the convention, listening to what she wanted us to do to help women and asking her questions," recalled M. Carey Thomas in later years, "I realized that she was the greatest person I had ever met. She seemed to me everything that a human being could be--a leader to die for or to live for and follow wherever she led."[460] Immediately after the convention, Susan went to Washington with the women who were scheduled to speak at the Congressional hearing on woman suffrage. In her room at the Shoreham Hotel, a room with a view of the Washington Monument which the manager always saved for her, she stood at the window looking out over the city as if saying farewell. Then turning to Anna Shaw, she said with emotion, "I think it is the most beautiful monument in the whole world."[461] That evening she sat quietly through the many tributes offered to her on her eighty-sixth birthday, longing to tell all her friends the gratitude and hope that welled up in her heart. Finally she rose, and standing by Anna Howard Shaw who was presiding, she impulsively put her hand on her shoulder and praised her for her loyal support. Then turning to the other officers, she thanked them for all they had done. "There are others also," she added, "just as true and devoted to the cause--I wish I could name everyone--but with such women consecrating their lives--" She hesitated a moment, and then in her clear rich voice, added with emphasis, "Failure is impossible."[462] * * * * * In Rochester, in the home she so dearly loved, she spent her last weeks, thinking of the cause and the women who would carry it on. Longing to talk with Anna Shaw, she sent for her, but Anna, feeling she was needed, came even before a letter could reach her. With Anna at her bedside, Susan was content.