Francis Newman was only twenty-one when he first met her.

Maria Rosina Giberne was a beautiful girl, possessing special charm of
manner. It was not long after his first meeting with her that Frank Newman
fell passionately in love with her. Long talks on scientific and religious
subjects passed between them. But though he cared for her, evidently her
feeling for him was only that of friendship and interest, for when, later,
he asked her to marry him, she refused. He did not, however, take this for
an absolutely final decision (as in effect it was), for five or six years
later, when he was on his missionary journey to Syria, and he wrote and
begged her to give him a different answer, she refused him again.

[Illustration: OVER WORTON RECTORY, OXFORDSHIRE
BY KIND PERMISSION OF REV. W. H. LANGHORNE, PRESENT RECTOR OF WORTON]

The extracts that follow are from her diary of the summer at Worton in
1826--the year she first met the Newman brothers. The extracts are taken
from an autobiography of hers, which was originally written in French for
the nuns of the "Order of the Visitation" convent at Autun, Saone et
Loire, to which she went, as professed nun, after her conversion to the
Roman Church.

This is Maria Rosina Giberne's description of Worton (to which I have
access by the kindness of my cousin):--

"It was a delightful place; far from towns and quite country. There I
spent my days as much as possible under the trees, or in the fields
sketching the lovely views. My sister had told me that Mr. Francis Newman
and a friend were coming to the village to spend the vacation. I did not