`` I have n't had that experience . '' Then they had a jolly talk , and every evening after that Charlotte went to the gap and stroked the Very Handsome Cat and chatted to the Tall Lady . `` Do you live all alone in that big house ? '' she asked wonderingly one day . `` All alone , '' said the Tall Lady . `` Did you always live alone ? '' `` No . I had a sister living with me once . But I do n't want to talk about her . You 'll oblige me , Charlotte , by not talking about her . '' `` I wo n't then , '' agreed Charlotte . `` I can understand why people do n't like to have their sisters talked about sometimes . Lily Mitchell has a big sister who was sent to jail for stealing . Of course Lily does n't like to talk about her . '' The Tall Lady laughed a little bitterly . `` My sister did n't steal . She married a man I detested , that 's all . '' `` Did he drink ? '' asked Charlotte gravely . `` The matron 's husband drank and that was why she left him and took to running an orphan asylum .
I think I 'd rather put up XXXXX a drunken husband than live in an orphan asylum . ''
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