“Have I ever told you about Ribbon Day at the academy?” he began. “Yes,” Sofia said. “You have.” Furrowing his brow, the Count reviewed all of the conversations that he had ever had with his daughter in chronological order and could find no evidence of having told her the tale before. “I may have mentioned something about Ribbon Day once or twice,” he conceded, to be polite, “but I am quite sure that I have never told you this particular story. You see, as a boy I had a certain aptitude for marks-manship. And one spring—when I was about your age—there was a Ribbon Day at the academy in which
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