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In the first scene of the story Tom Rakewell (the Rake) has come home from Oxford to London. His father, a rich and miserly money-lender, has recently died and the room is being draped for mourning. Tom has himself measured for a mourning suit. Meanwhile, he pays off the mother of Sarah Young, a servant girl whom he has made pregnant. The weeping girl holds the ring which the Rake has given her together with his false promisses. The expression on his face shows that he has no feelings of guilt or remorse whatsoever. In the background, a lawyer who is making an inventory of the possessions of old Rakewell is stealing money behind the Rake's back. |