[Boost-users] reference_wrapper 101

I thought understood what boost::reference_wrapper was all about, and in the context of, say Boost.Bind, it seems pretty clear. But why would you define a function to RETURN a reference_wrapper? eg template <class T> struct X { std::pair<boost::reference_wrapper<T>, unsigned> getSomething(....) const; }; I suspect I'm having a 'doh' moment here! Thx, - Rob.