Any determined expression of extraneous will would drive him into a violent rage.

Felicite was far too supple to thwart him openly; with her light fluttering nature she did not attack obstacles in front.

When she wished to obtain something from her husband, or drive him the way she thought best, she would buzz round him in her grasshopper fashion, stinging him on all sides, and returning to the charge a hundred times until he yielded almost unconsciously.

He felt, moreover, that she was shrewder than he, and tolerated her advice fairly patiently.

Felicite, more useful than the coach fly, would sometimes do all the work while she was thus buzzing round Pierre's ears.