WASHINGTON — President Trump had already given his blessing: Pull the bill. Speaker Paul D. Ryan, bound for the basement of the Capitol, was preparing to deliver the news to his conference.

And inside the House gallery on Friday, still teeming with lawmakers debating legislation that would never get a vote, Gary and Tammy Comes, visitors from Vero Beach, Fla., were straining to puzzle out the shouting just after 3:30 p.m.

“Vote! Vote! Vote!” came the lawmakers’ chants, echoing as the body suddenly adjourned, setting in motion a whirring of members, journalists and assorted guests wandering through the Capitol, conscripted to spend the next several minutes — days? election cycles? — making sense of what had happened.