# IX explained — The Return > Chapter companion for The Return by Walter de la Mare. ## What happens Lawford returns to the graveyard at dusk and finds a stranger sitting by Sabathier's grave. They discuss the suicide, the possibility of the dead answering back, and the nature of death. The stranger reveals himself as Herbert Herbert, and invites Lawford to visit him. As they part, Herbert sees Lawford's face in the moonlight and reacts with astonishment. ## Themes in this chapter ### Mortality and the Past The graveyard setting and discussion of Sabathier's suicide and the nature of death dominate the chapter. ### The Supernatural and Possession Lawford speculates about the dead trying to return, and Herbert's reaction to Lawford's face hints at supernatural transformation. ### Isolation and Alienation Lawford feels more at home among the dead than among the living; Sabathier is described as a stranger kept out by the community. ## Character check-ins ### Arthur Lawford Returns to the graveyard, converses with a stranger about death and Sabathier, and arranges to meet again. ### Herbert The stranger sitting by Sabathier's grave; invites Lawford to his home and reacts with shock upon seeing Lawford's face in the moonlight. ### Nicholas Sabathier His grave is the focus of the conversation; discussed as a suicide and stranger buried in unconsecrated ground. ## Key lines > It seemed to him that the steady eyes of the dead were watching him in his slow progress. Lawford felt as though the dead were observing him as he walked. _Highlights Lawford's sense of being watched by the deceased._ > I believe in the resurrection of the body; that is what we say; and supposing, when a man dies—supposing it was most frightfully against one's will; that one hated the awful inaction that death brings, shutting a poor devil up like a child kicking against the door in a dark cupboard; one might—surely one might—just quietly, you know, try to get out? Lawford wonders if the dead, if they resisted death, might try to escape their graves. _Expresses Lawford's growing obsession with the possibility of the dead returning._ > He was a stranger; it says so. Good God! how he must have wanted to get home! Lawford exclaims that Sabathier, being a stranger, must have desperately longed to return home. _Reflects Lawford's empathy for Sabathier and his own feelings of displacement._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_return_se/chapters/ix - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_return_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_return_se/chapters