Paddy the Next Best Thing

Paddy the Next Best Thing by Gertrude Page, first published in 1908. Paddy Adair, the “next-best-thing,” as she was fond of calling herself, and the reason for which will appear hereafter, sat at the table, and spread all around her were little square books of “patterns for blouses,” from which she was vainly endeavouring to make a selection. Meanwhile she kept up a running conversation with the only other occupant of the room, a girl with dreamy eyes of true Irish blue, who sat in the window, motionless, gazing across the Loch at the distant mountains. She heard no word of all her sister was saying, but that did not appear to trouble Paddy in the least, so doubtless it was not an unusual state of affairs. Gertrude Page (1873-1922), She was the daughter of John Elliott Page. He moved to this area when Gertrude was three, and bought a coal and malting business at Bedford. He had had two wives, with three children by the first, and seven by the second.