No table, just chairs. Those were the props for yesterday's ground-breaking encounter between David Trimble and Gerry Adams. The Trimble-Adams conversation was, in fact, a meeting within a meeting.
Seeking to play it down somewhat, Trimble described it as being "in the margins" of a larger meeting between himself and the Deputy First Minister, Seamus Mallon, on one side, and a Sinn Fein delegation consisting of Adams, Bairbre de Brun and Alex Maskey on the other.
That meeting lasted from 9.30 to 10.15. Then the second movement began. Eyewitnesses described how Trimble and Adams rose, went into the annex off the main room and closed the door behind them.
When they emerged at the end of their half-hour conversation, the "body language" of both men was good. Adams is normally quite laidback in demeanour and Trimble, according to an eyewitness, looked relaxed. He was composed: the Rubicon had been crossed.
The two men had no books, files, speaking notes or other documentation with them for the meeting.
Speaking briefly in Irish afterwards, Adams described the discussion as "cairdiuil", which is usually translated into English as "friendly", although the Sinn Fein leader preferred "cordial". It would probably sink Trimble if he was seen as friendly to his long-time opponent: indeed there was concern in some quarters that his decision to meet Adams in private might be used against him by critics and rivals in his own party.
The indications were that both men said their piece and heard each other out in a polite fashion. It is safe to say that Adams did more talking than the First Minister: that's his way.
Each knows the other has a difficulty. Cleverly, it appears Adams raised the decommissioning issue first, without waiting for Trimble to bring it up. It is understood he reminded the First Minister of Sinn Fein's recent gestures in this regard but added that he could not "deliver" the IRA on this issue; Trimble is believed to have reiterated in frank and direct terms the difficulties which the lack of progress posed from his point of view.
There were signs afterwards that both men were attempting to put the problem on to a new plane. Adams and his party have been seeking to place decommissioning in the context of progress on the agreement as a whole.
Trimble, for his part, acknowledges the need for progress on all aspects of the agreement but points out that this includes decommissioning. As he put it himself, it is a "chicken and egg" situation.
By his own account, Adams told Trimble "that he and I had been cast in these positions and that we had to narrow the gap; we had to try and find ways for me to help him and for him to help me".
Adams told reporters the issues of establishing the executive, the North-South Council and the other bodies provided for in the agreement were also discussed. By his own account he made a wider, ideological point, namely his incomprehension at the fact that unionists were prepared to tolerate being ruled by London ministers.
Speaking to the media in the main entrance hall of Stormont after the meeting, Trimble drew attention to the statue of Sir James Craig, one of his predecessors as leader of Ulster unionism, who had met Eamon de Valera while the latter was on the run and later concluded a series of agreements with Michael Collins.
The focus of the meeting with Adams had been on "immediate political problems", and Trimble made the point that the agreement "isn't going to work unless it ALL works". He said the inaugural meetings of the North-South and British-Irish councils would take place in late September or early October.
Summing up his conversation with the Sinn Fein leader, he said he was quite satisfied "that Mr Adams recognises the need for progress to occur on all fronts". As he had no doubt said to Adams, he was not necessarily seeking the surrender of IRA weapons or the humiliation of the republican movement: there were other ways for disposing of the arsenal. But he stood firm on the need and inevitability for dismantling private armies and their armouries.
Unusually, Adams was in shirtsleeves when he addressed the media, which may reflect his anxiety to get the message across quickly, or simply a desire to send a message that at long last he and Trimble were getting down to the hard, practical work of putting all elements of the agreement in place.
There may have been little sign of a solution to the arms conundrum yesterday but the demeanour of both men indicated they were at least willing to try.