She was possessed of a great desire to ask people questions, find out why they had done what they did and what they thought about things other people were doing.

Her mind was sending out little shoots in all directions and those little shoots were begging for food and drink.
She wished she might have a long talk with the "trouble-maker." She would like to talk about dogs who had lived in alleys and dogs that had been reared in kennels, about soldiers who were willing to recognize their betters and soldiers who thought they were as good as some above them.

She would like to talk about Watts.

Watts was the son of an old English servant.

It was in Watts' blood to "recognize his betters." Was that why he could be moved to no sense of responsibility about stray dogs?
Was that why he was a good man for the service and had no ambitions as civilian?
And Ann--she would like to talk to the boat-mending trouble-maker about Ann: Why Ann, whom one would expect to find sympathetic with the homeless, should be so hard and so queer about forlorn little stray dogs.