How would you interpret this phrase?
How would you interpret this phrase ‘With your priest and your English girl’ in the third to last passage?
Does it mean although you have your priest and your English girl?
Or does it mean because of your priest and your English girl? PS: Like the other one he speaks to, the speaker also likes the priest and the English girl.
Thanks. It’s from A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway (Chapter 10).the context:
"I wish you were back. No one to come in at night from adventures. No one to make fun of. No one to lend me money. No blood brother and roommate. Why do you get yourself wounded?"
"You can make fun of the priest."
"That priest. It isn't me that makes fun of him. It is the captain. I like him. If you must have a priest have that priest. He's coming to see you. He makes big preparations."
"I like him."
"Oh, I knew it. Sometimes I think you and he are a little that way. You know."
"No, you don't."
"Yes, I do sometimes. A little that way like the number of the first regiment of the Brigata Ancona."
"Oh, go to hell."
He stood up and put on his gloves.
"Oh I love to tease you, baby. With your priest and your English girl, and really you are just like me underneath."
"No, I'm not."
"Yes, we are. You are really an Italian. All fire and smoke and nothing inside. You only pretend to be American. We are brothers and we love each other."

Question

How would you interpret this phrase?
How would you interpret this phrase ‘With your priest and your English girl’ in the third to last passage?
Does it mean although you have your priest and your English girl?
Or does it mean because of your priest and your English girl? PS: Like the other one he speaks to, the speaker also likes the priest and the English girl.
Thanks. It’s from A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway (Chapter 10).the context:
"I wish you were back. No one to come in at night from adventures. No one to make fun of. No one to lend me money. No blood brother and roommate. Why do you get yourself wounded?"
"You can make fun of the priest."
"That priest. It isn't me that makes fun of him. It is the captain. I like him. If you must have a priest have that priest. He's coming to see you. He makes big preparations."
"I like him."
"Oh, I knew it. Sometimes I think you and he are a little that way. You know."
"No, you don't."
"Yes, I do sometimes. A little that way like the number of the first regiment of the Brigata Ancona."
"Oh, go to hell."
He stood up and put on his gloves.
"Oh I love to tease you, baby. With your priest and your English girl, and really you are just like me underneath."
"No, I'm not."
"Yes, we are. You are really an Italian. All fire and smoke and nothing inside. You only pretend to be American. We are brothers and we love each other."

Answer

The speaker is provoking him in a playful manner. And the speaker is mentioning two people that he knows/thinks will incite a reaction. Another way to word this (who would do that to Hemingway?!?)

"I love to tease you about the priest and the English girl"

Mea culpa Hemingway!!!!

Answer

Gordon

This  is a literature rather than a language question.  An answerer has to know the novel before he gives you the right answer.

To give the right context, you need to tell us everything you know about the priest.

I'll do your work for you this time.

It is a young priest.  You are quoting a conversation between Rinaldi the Italian and Frederic the American.  Frederic confesses to the priest.  The priest brings him English newspapers, alcohol and mosquito netting.  It is a close relationship.

"Oh, I knew it. Sometimes I think you and he are a little that way. You know."  That means "I think both of you are a little gay."

"With your priest and your English girl, and really you are just like me underneath."  It means, "You have this rather ambivalent relationship with the priest, and you have this love affair with this English girl.  You are just like me inside."

You see, Gordon, a sentence is not there in isolation.  It can only be understood if you read it as part of the whole book.  So to understand something on page 100, you need to have understood and absorbed everything in the preceding 99 pages.  That is the way to read.