Trouble understanding this exchange from Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms

[Douglas J Allen]

I'm currently struggling my way through A Farewell to Arms and, although I understand it overall, there is one line that makes no sense to me. It may be a throwaway line and it may seem trivial that I'm even asking about it, but it really bothers me that I don't understand what is meant by it.

At the end of Chapter V, when Henry (the narrator of the story) comes back to his house after visiting Catherine, he and his roommate, Rinaldi, have this exchange:

"So you make progress with Miss Barkley?"
"We are friends."
"You have that pleasant air of a dog in heat."
I did not understand the word.
"Of a what?"
He explained.
"You," I said, "have that pleasant air of a dog
who—"
"Stop it," he said. "In a little while we would say
insulting things." He laughed.

What does Rinaldi mean by “In a little while we would say insulting things”? It sounds as though he is speaking in completely the wrong tense. It’s like he has suddenly become the narrator and speaking omnisciently, but it’s just direct speech. Because the character is Italian, is it deliberately meant to be dodgy English? Surely it would make more sense if it were “should” or “will” instead of “would”. I understand the general gist of the conversation, that Rinaldi is gently teasing Henry about his romance, but that sentence sounds completely nonsensical to me.


If anyone has read the novel and knows what Rinaldi means by it, I would really like to know. Thank you for any help :)

[Whifflingpin]

It's in the conditional tense, with the actual condition being left unsaid - "If you were not to stop it (comparing me to a dog) now, then in a little while we would say insulting things"

[Vota]

"In a little while we would say insulting things." The use of the word "would" implies that it is likely they might engage in excessively raunchy conversation - which gentlemen don't do.

"In a little while we should say insulting things." This appears to be a recommendation to speak bawdily about the relationship.

"In a little while we will say insulting things." This is either a commandment or prediction of the future to speak bawdily.

There is nothing wrong with the tense of the sentence.

[ennison]

He has badly misunderstood the expression. That's what happens when you are not completely fluent in your companions language and you don't get the idioms. So it's like "We'd better stop now before we say worse or fall out". Tense is fine.