It means that Teresa played hard to get and got her man in the end!

howdy! Lead a merry chase or dance. Mislead someone; waste someone's time.lets use your example, Mary refuses to commit herself and is leading John a merry chase, or Harry led us all a dance; we were waiting at the hotel and he'd gone to the movies. cowboy...

"to lead a merry chase" is an idiom that can have following meanings: 1. to delay 2. to skillfully escape capture by (someone) 3. to make a pursuer work hard In your case meaning number 3 would be appropriate, meaning that Teresa made the guy "work hard" before marrying him, sort of playing "hard to get" :))) Maybe that's why he ended up marrying her (just a thought). Hope this helped...

How very British. ^^ "Merry" is used partly as a hyperbole for the chase. "Teresa led John on such a chase...!" So not just any chase; this was quite a chase. Similar to how we'd say "a pretty injury" or "pretty ugly" to highlight the injury or ugliness (not because they're actually pretty or nice). Because of the 'fun' implication of "merry", we know the chase wasn't stressful or exhausting, but rather fun and silly to watch (and be part of).