While much of Picnic at Hanging Rock feels either sinister or playful, the novel nevertheless contains a number of descriptions that feel tender and touching. One such description can be found in Chapter 10, when Irma and Mademoiselle are reunited for the first time since the day of the picnic. Using alliteration, imagery, personification, and simile, Lindsay evokes the heartwarming moment—and temporarily replaces the grim mood and playful tone with stirring sincerity:

The venetian blinds were drawn against the green garden light that rippled on the whitewashed walls of the bare little room and on the immense double bed with its patchwork quilt, seemingly afloat in a sea cave. The soft summer air caressed and healed like water.

As Lindsay sets the scene in the first sentence, she develops a soothing atmosphere. Although the blinds are drawn, some of the light from the garden makes it into the room. By using the word "rippled," she indicates that the movement in the room is calm and indirectly likens the light to water. She builds further on this comparison when describing the double bed as a sort of boat, "seemingly afloat in a sea cave." The personification and simile in the second sentence reinforces this image: not only does the air caress Irma and Mademoiselle as though it has hands, it heals like water. After the dramatic events of the novel so far, the moment between the two characters feels especially sweet and stirring.

The pleasant effect of the passage isn't merely a result of the soft and peaceful imagery, however. Lindsay also uses alliteration such that the sound of the sentences contributes to the effect of the images produced within them. The most obvious instances of alliteration in the passage are "green garden" and "whitewashed walls," but the end of the passage also contains sibilance, which brings about a sort of whispering sound: "seemingly afloat in a sea cave. The soft summer air caressed." Moreover, in the first sentence it's worth noting that the vowel sounds in "blinds" and "light" also seem to echo each other. In describing the room and its atmosphere, Lindsay affects the reader on the level of both image and sound. From time to time throughout the novel, she gives the reader lovely descriptions like this, balancing out the uneasy atmosphere and her light mocking of the characters with sincere moments of beauty and intimacy.