'What shall I do?' he sighed. 'My heart is broken.' Annabelle had left him, and this time he knew she meant it. Not only had she met a more eligible bachelor, she had actually flown off to America, to start a new life with him there. 'I never had a chance. I knew it was too good to be true when she said she loved me. I am not the loveable type; clearly to be loveable one needs to be rich and handsome, with a charming disposition and an attractive personality. I was born unlucky. I am short, with ginger hair and gappy teeth. I am broke, and I have no sense of humour. Well, there is not much to laugh about in all that. It's no wonder Annabelle could not stick around with such a fuddy-duddy as I am. She is a young lady of taste and discernment, as well as being devastatingly beautiful. Oh, I do so love her, and I miss her so much, I don't know how to go on living.'

As though Nature were listening to his thoughts, the wind rose up, and howled, and the waves of the sea crashed angrily down on the shore, before dragging the pebbles away with a fierce hissing sound. It sounded like an invitation. Julian longed to lose himself in that wild roaring water and disappear from the beach. The pain of rejection would be stilled for ever; he would suffer no more.

He climbed on to a spit of rock that jutted out into the water. The wind tore at his jacket, spray soaked his trouser legs and it was a wonder he was not swept away accidentally, before the moment came to cast himself into the deep. As he looked down he noticed a bottle sliding back at great speed, before being flung violently by the next huge wave right up on to the rock where he was precariously balanced.

The bottle rolled into a dip in the rock and rattled about there for a moment. Before it could be carried away again, Julian scooped it up. 'Oh, ha ha, very funny' he thought bitterly. 'Just what I need - a message in a bottle, carried right to my feet by some miraculous chance. This will probably save my life.' He was tempted to throw it furiously away, when something made him pause. 'Suppose there is a message in it?' he wondered. He unscrewed the metal cap.

'Unbelievable!' he said, lurching dangerously near the edge of the spit. He pulled out a piece of paper which someone had rolled up and pushed into the neck of the bottle. Carefully he stepped back until he regained the safer ground. Unrolling the paper he read a note. 'Amazing!’ he gasped. 'It could have been written especially for me. Shall I take this advice? Could this be the answer? '

The note read as follows, 'Don't despair! You will find the right person for a happy and satisfying relationship! Look at the profiles on www.datingagency.com.'