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In the words of a second-rate novel 'Of course, I see it all now!' I asked yesterday why the narrator could not go back to the house. What gave me the clue was the poem at the beginning of the story, 'The Return of the Children', especially the last line: 'Shall I that have suffered the children to come to me hold them against their will?' Since the children come because people love them and miss them, then a loving parent must let his daughter go and not impose his need on her. Which is why the blind woman repeats so often 'They came because I loved them'. If the presence of the children was not real, but simply an imagined comfort, it would be all right to continue to take that comfort. But if the child is really there, then she must be allowed to go back where she belongs. I am often staggered by the capacity of RK's stories to go on revealing new sides of themselves that I hadn't spotted after years of re-reading. No doubt many of you had already seen this aspect of 'They', but I have had great pleasure and excitement from the discovery. Thanks for listening! Liz %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%