Rupert was conducting no campaign; he was simply favored at the outset by general sentiment.
The fellows in the Crown were most of them popular throughout the school, notwithstanding the fact that they kept pretty much to themselves. Therefore when an obscure and usually neglected boy found one of these busy, popular persons walking with him, or waving an informal hand with unaccustomed familiarity and joining him in preference to some more intimate companion, he thought that it was pleasant and added to the cheerfulness of life. He listened then with a sympathetic interest to this experienced person's confidential opinions, and naturally made an effort to share them.
In such circumstances an attempt to enlist his support for some less attractive candidate than Harry might have succeeded. As it was, the boy was usually willing to make some concession of opinion in Harry's favor. For Harry had the widest and most varied acquaintance of all the boys in the school. As editor
