In itself, apparently, little.  And Bingo himself must have felt this; for his tail continued to be nothing but a rat’s tail, and his body to be nothing but a fat tub, and his head to be almost the head of any little puppy in the world.  He felt it deeply.  When I ragged him about it he tried to eat my ankles.  I had only to go into the room in which he was, and murmur, “Rat’s tail,” to myself, or (more offensive still) “Chewed string,” for him to rush at me.  “Where, O Bingo, is that delicate feather curling gracefully over the back, which was the pride and glory of thy great-grandfather?  Is the caudal affix of the rodent thy apology for it?” And Bingo would whimper with shame.

Then we began to look him up in the map.

I found a Chinese town called “Ning-po,” which strikes me as very much like “Bing-go,” and Celia found another one called “Yung-Ping,” which might just as well be “Yung-Bing,” the obvious name of Bingo’s heir when he has one.  These facts being communicated to Bingo, his nose immediately began to go back a little and his tub to develop something of a waist.  But what finally decided him was a discovery of mine made only yesterday. There is a Japanese province called Bingo.  Japanese, not Chinese, it is true; but at least it is Oriental.  In any case conceive one’s pride in realizing suddenly that one has been called after a province and not after a poodle.  It has determined Bingo unalterably to grow up in the right way.

You have Bingo now definitely a Pekinese.  That being so, I may refer to his ancestors, always an object of veneration among these Easterns.  I speak of (hats off, please!) Ch.  Goodwood Lo.

Of course you know (I didn’t myself till last week) that “Ch.” stands for “Champion.”  On the male side Champion Goodwood Lo is Bingo’s great-great-grandfather.  On the female side the same animal is Bingo’s great-grandfather.  One couldn’t be a poodle after that.  A fortnight after Bingo came to us we found in a Pekinese book a photograph of Goodwood Lo.  How proud we all were!  Then we saw above it, “Celebrities of the Past.  The Late—­”

Champion Goodwood Lo was no more!  In one moment Bingo had lost both his great-grandfather and his great-great-grandfather!

We broke it to him as gently as possible, but the double shock was too much, and he passed the evening in acute depression.  Annoyed with my tactlessness in letting him know anything about it, I kicked Humphrey off his stool.  Humphrey, I forgot to say, has a squeak if kicked in the right place.  He squeaked.

Bingo, at that time still uncertain of his destiny, had at least the courage of the lion.  Just for a moment he hesitated.  Then with a pounce he was upon Humphrey.