This was such bliss that he could dream no further.

But it gave him the courage to bound downstairs, to snatch his straw hat from the hall, and to say as he closed the front door, "Well, I can only try my luck, that's all." But his luck gave him a nasty jar, to say the least, almost immediately.
Promenading up and down the garden path with Chinny and Biddy, the ancient Pekes, was the mater.

Of course Reginald was fond of the mater and all that.

She--she meant well, she had no end of grit, and so on.
But there was no denying it, she was rather a grim parent.

And there had been moments, many of them, in Reggie's life, before Uncle Alick died and left him the fruit farm, when he was convinced that to be a widow's only son was about the worst punishment a chap could have.