Allerton and Nurse Craven

Allerton and Nurse Craven are involved in an affair that complicates the apparent rivalry between Allerton and Arthur Hastings over Judith Hastings. Hidden behind Hastings’s mistaken belief that Allerton is meeting Judith, the relationship becomes one of the means by which Stephen Norton manipulates Hastings toward murder.

The Affair Behind the Misunderstanding

Nurse Craven’s connection with Allerton is more substantial than a flirtation: by the time of the events Norton stages, their affair has progressed considerably. Allerton is not exclusively pursuing Judith, and Nurse Craven is not merely an observer of the household’s romantic tensions. Her relationship with Allerton gives Norton a real encounter to disguise as a meeting with Judith.

Nurse Craven’s own position is complicated by earlier attractions. She had tried to interest Dr John Franklin without success, a failure associated in Norton’s account with her dislike of Judith. She is meanwhile continuing with Allerton, although she knows he is not serious about her. The affair is therefore neither a secure commitment nor an uncomplicated romance; it exists alongside Nurse Craven’s awareness that Allerton’s attentions are not exclusive or dependable.

Norton’s Staging of the Summerhouse Scene

Norton exploits the gap between what Hastings sees and what he assumes. Hastings witnesses Allerton and Judith kiss, but Norton then pushes him back around a corner. He knows, Norton later explains, that Allerton is going to meet Nurse Craven in the summerhouse. After an argument, Norton allows Hastings to go on while accompanying him; Hastings overhears a sentence spoken by Allerton, and Norton swiftly draws him away before he can discover that the woman is Nurse Craven rather than Judith.

The deception works because Hastings accepts the scene at face value. He neither sees the woman clearly nor hears her speak, yet continues to believe the meeting was with Judith, even the following morning. Norton’s arrangement turns the affair into misleading evidence: the relationship is real, but Hastings is led to mistake its participants and significance.

Consequences for Hastings and the Relationship

The false impression feeds Hastings’s jealousy and his belief that Judith has changed her mind about Allerton. Norton deliberately plays on Hastings’s affection for his daughter, his sense of responsibility, his vanity, and his resentment at the prospect of losing her to another man. Hastings responds by deciding to commit murder. Allerton and Nurse Craven’s affair thus becomes part of the mechanism of Norton’s psychological manipulation, even though neither the affair itself nor Hastings’s mistaken inference makes Allerton the target of a genuine plan by Judith.

Norton’s explanation also clarifies why Nurse Craven’s movements matter. There had been no question of Judith going to London that day; Nurse Craven was the person who had expected to go out and was furious when prevented. The mismatch between Hastings’s assumption and those circumstances exposes how carefully the apparent romantic scene has been managed. Earlier, Nurse Craven had left immediately after a funeral, but Boyd Carrington later tells Hastings that she is staying at Styles for a night between cases. Her continued presence at the house provides further context for her place in the household’s intertwined relationships, without changing the central fact that Hastings has mistaken her for Judith.