The Heir Presumptive and the Heir Apparent

The Heir Presumptive and the Heir Apparent by Margaret Oliphant is about Lord Frogmore and his younger brother John Parke, who is getting married. Excerpt: «Lord Frogmore was about sixty when his step-brother, John Parke, his heir presumptive, announced to him one day his desire to marry. John was thirty-five, the son of another mother, with whom, however, Lord Frogmore had always lived in the best intelligence. A more indulgent elder brother could not be. He had never himself married, or even thought of doing so, so far as anybody knew. He had considered John's interests in everything.»