Julie Herbault (née Morrel)

Julie Emmanuel Herbault is a young woman of gentle temperament and domestic virtue who has married for love rather than fortune. Once the daughter of a shipping merchant, she is now the wife of Emmanuel Herbault, a former clerk turned merchant-proprietor, and together they have built a modest but genuinely happy home in the Rue Meslay—a residence they have styled, with affectionate irony, 'The Little Versailles' for its charming garden and fountain. Julie takes an active role in the management of her household and the tending of her beloved rose garden, and she exhibits the kind of gracious hospitality that comes from genuine kindness rather than social pretense. She and her husband are content with their modest income of twenty-five thousand francs per annum, which they consider abundant, and their marriage appears to be one of true affection and mutual respect. When the Edmond Dantès / the Count of Monte Cristo of Edmond Dantès / the Count of Monte Cristo Edmond Dantès / the Count of Monte Cristo visits their home, Julie receives him with sincere warmth, though not without the natural embarrassment of a woman suddenly visited by an unexpected guest of distinction. She represents a kind of domestic happiness and moral contentment that stands in sharp contrast to the ambitious machinations of Paris's higher society.