View from the barrels
The author vividly describes Nell’s perception of the world in the ship: “Dust motes, hundreds of them, danced in the sliver of sunlight that had appeared between two barrels. The little girl smiled and the lady, the cliff, the maze, Mamma, left her thoughts. She held out a finger, tried to catch a speck upon it. Laughed at the way the motes came so close before skirting away…” Here the author creates the atmosphere of lightness, placidness, he shows that the girl doesn’t actually understand what’s going on: that she is left alone, without her family, and she is going to the other continent where nobody waits for her.
Sea of memories
When Cassandra was near Nell at the hospital, she watched her, comforted, “as Nell drowned in a sea of memories, came up for air again and again in earlier times of life. She couldn't bear to think her grandmother might defy the odds and find her way back to the present, only to discover herself floating on the outer edge of life, alone.” Here the author shows how close is connection between these two women, how deeply Cassandra “feels” her grandmother. Using imagery the author lets the reader feel this connection more vividly.
London of Eliza Makepeace
The author vividly depicts London when Eliza lived in it: “A city where nightfall turned the streets to pitch and the air to fog: Jack the Ripper's London. That was the London of Eliza Makepeace, the London Cassandra had read about in Nell's notebook, of mist-filled streets and looming horses, glowing lamps that materialized then vanished again into the fog-laden haze.” Artistically describing the city, the author leads the reader in the atmosphere of that time, thus helping him/her feel the events which take place in the story, its characters.
Room which sympathies
The author vividly describes Rose and her room when she got to know that she was infertile: “Rose was sitting in the window seat, attention focused on the ground below. Her arms were so frail, her profile so gaunt. The room had grown listless in sympathy to its owner, cushions flat, curtains sagging in despondence. Even the air seemed to have staled within the streams of weak light.” This imagery helps the reader feel the “size” of the woman’s grief, sadness.
