It wasn't exactly that.

I was more by way of being out of breath with the quickness of it.

It didn't seem possible that this was happening to me.

But the skipper, after he had talked for a while with Mr.Powell, too low for me to hear became visibly perplexed.
"I suppose he had heard I was freshly passed and without experience as an officer, because he turned about and looked me over as if I had been exposed for sale.
"He's young," he mutters.

"Looks smart, though.