"It seems trouble on trouble," she declared. "Everybody is saying that Mr. Glyn Williams will be sure to get hold of the estate now, and with our lease just falling in, and this business between Bevis and young Williams which they'll likely not forgive, we may be turned out of the farm for all I know. I came here when I was married twenty-five years ago, and Mr. Penruddock was born here. It would break our hearts to have to go anywhere else."
"Oh, I hope it won't be as bad as that!" said Mavis consolingly.
At lunch-time the girls told Uncle David about the matter.
"Will Mr. Glyn Williams really buy the property?" asked Mavis.
"I don't think he can," replied Dr. Tremayne; "the estate's entailed."
"What's 'entailed'?" said Merle, looking puzzled.
"It's a legal term, which means that a property cannot be sold, but must always pass to the next heir in the male line, so that the owner really only has a life interest in it."
"And who is the heir then?"
"A distant cousin of General Talland's, Mr. George Talland, a most unsuitable man from all accounts. I believe he spends most of his time gaming at Monte Carlo. Very probably he will make the same arrangement as before with Mr. Glyn Williams, and will let him the The Warren and the shooting. There's a possibility, though, that Mr. George Talland and his son might 'cut the entail'. If owner and heir both agree to sell a property they can legally do so, and they might care to have the ready money and settle up their debts rather than only the income of the estate."
"Pity General Talland hadn't a son to leave it to."