And they brought to him one of the Queen's Bounty nurses from Aldgate.
She washed his face, shook up his conch, and talked with him.

It was interesting to talk with him--until he learned her name.

Oh, yes, Blank was her name, she replied innocently, and Sir George Blank was her brother.

Sir George Blank, eh?
thundered old Dan Cullen on his death- bed; Sir George Blank, solicitor to the docks at Cardiff, who, more than any other man, had broken up the Dockers' Union of Cardiff, and was knighted?
And she was his sister?
Thereupon Dan Cullen sat up on his crazy couch and pronounced anathema upon her and all her breed; and she fled, to return no more, strongly impressed with the ungratefulness of the poor.
Dan Cullen's feet became swollen with dropsy.

He sat up all day on the side of the bed (to keep the water out of his body), no mat on the floor, a thin blanket on his legs, and an old coat around his shoulders.