The Senior Common Room was unusually quiet.
Professor Quillibrace occupied his customary chair beside the fire.
Miss Elowen Stray sat near the window with a notebook resting unopened upon her lap.
Mr Blottisham entered carrying a plate containing three biscuits and an expression suggesting imminent intellectual activity.
He paused.
Professor Quillibrace was reading.
Miss Stray was observing a rain shower moving slowly across the quadrangle.
Blottisham looked at the empty chair between them.
He did not sit down.
Instead he selected a chair slightly farther away.
He sat.
The room remained silent.
After several moments Blottisham reached toward a biscuit.
At precisely that moment Professor Quillibrace adjusted his spectacles and turned a page.
Blottisham withdrew his hand.
A minute later he attempted the same manoeuvre.
Miss Stray leaned forward slightly and gazed out of the window.
Blottisham selected a different biscuit.
Silence continued.
Professor Quillibrace crossed one leg over the other.
Miss Stray shifted her notebook.
Blottisham reconsidered the position of his teacup.
The rain intensified.
No one spoke.
After several minutes Professor Quillibrace rose and walked towards the bookcase.
Blottisham immediately abandoned any possibility of standing up himself.
Instead he remained seated and inspected a biscuit with unnecessary concentration.
Miss Stray turned a page in a notebook she had not yet written in.
Quillibrace returned to his chair.
Only then did Blottisham stand.
He crossed the room.
Halfway to the sideboard he discovered he had no particular reason for being there.
He examined a spoon.
Returning to his seat, he found that Miss Stray had shifted to a chair nearer the fire.
Blottisham paused.
The chair she had vacated was now available.
He considered moving.
Instead he sat down exactly where he already was.
The rain ceased.
A shaft of sunlight crossed the carpet.
Professor Quillibrace closed his book.
Miss Stray opened her notebook.
Blottisham ate a biscuit.
No one commented.
No one greeted anyone.
No one exchanged information, opinions, or observations.
No meanings had been negotiated.
No propositions had been advanced.
No speech functions had been enacted.
Yet the afternoon had possessed a distinct structure.
Possibilities had continuously appeared and disappeared.
Actions had become more or less available.
Movements had opened and closed alternatives.
Each participant's behaviour had contributed to the organisation of possibilities available to the others.
The room had been highly coordinated.
It had simply not been linguistic.
After some time Blottisham consumed a second biscuit.
Professor Quillibrace looked briefly in his direction.
Blottisham decided against the third.
No one spoke.
The system remained stable.
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