I should be sorry to think our friend mercenary." " Pray, my dear aunt, what is the difference in matrimonial affairs, between the mercenary and the prudent motive?
Think no unfair evil of her, pray: she had no wicked plots, nothing sordid or mercenary; in fact, she never thought of money except as something necessary which other people would always provide.
Twice he had spent the night in a station-house; again and again he had found himself the dupe of ingenious and mercenary tricksters; his watch and money had been the price of one flattering allurement.
This put her affection out of suspicion of mercenary ends, and showed that she loved, but not for gain;and that her professions, the less ostentatious they were, had so much the more of truth and sincerity than her sisters'.