The Spectacles

The narrator, 22-year old Napoleon Buonaparte, changes his last name from 'Froissart' to 'Simpson' as a requirement to inherit a large sum from a distant cousin, Adolphus Simpson. At the opera he sees a beautiful woman in the audience and falls in love instantly. He describes her beauty at length, despite not being able to see her well, he requires spectacles but, in his vanity 'resolutely refused to employ them.' His companion Talbot identifies the woman as Madame Eugenie Lalande, a wealthy widow, and promises to introduce the two. He courts her and proposes marriage, she makes him promise that, on their wedding night, he will wear his spectacles. . . (Excerpt from Wikipedia)