Hillary Clinton held her husband's hand as she waved goodbye from a rain-soaked Dublin Airport almost three years ago. Journalists recorded this development from behind a security cordon, some of them exchanging smiles. It was a feel-good kind of moment that spoke eloquently for itself. No body language experts need have applied.
On her last visit she made a speech which was music to the ears of Mna na hEireann. Women, she told her audience, were the great untapped resource of the world.
Now we observe Hillary through different eyes. As she toured Ireland this week she walked in the shadow of an unsavoury scandal and it is her reaction to it, not her gender empowerment skills, that intrigue.
Bill Clinton's infidelity has become the barometer by which Hillary Clinton is measured. Every grin, grimace and wave is dissected until a satisfactory judgment call can be made about her state of mind.
Monica Lewinsky has managed to keep a low personal profile since the scandal erupted but Hillary has had no such opportunity. The First Lady's Oscar-winning performances from Moscow to Belfast suggest she refuses to be cast as victim in this tacky American soap opera that has left a bad impression with everyone.
She could not have been more pleased, one imagines, at the headlines on the morning that followed her first night in Belfast. She had grinned and waved and looked the model of the tough 1990s woman the country was so impressed with back in 1995.
She spoke to the Women in Democracy Conference in Belfast on Wednesday: "If you listen you can hear the voices of women who withstood jeers and threats to make themselves heard in a political world once reserved primarily for men."
Her chosen tack - the head up, chin out, beaming smile strategy she has had to cultivate as spouse of Bill Clinton - appears to have worked. One newspaper awarded her a title ("Queen of Belfast") straight out of the dictionary of Diana. Others declared that she was yesterday's victim and tomorrow's heroine.
When her husband arrived in the North the next day, he was said to be pleased that Hillary had received such positive publicity in the nation's press. It has also been reported that he was anxious to know how her speech to the conference had gone.
Her reaction to the part of her husband's speech to the Assembly in which he said he wanted to "salute the women" is not recorded - though one British commentator said her eyes opened and closed "like a lizard's".
Later they walked together through Omagh and at the peace gathering in Armagh that night Hillary sat and smiled as her husband spoke. Later she told Sharon Haughey, the young woman who delivered the welcome speech to the President, that she was very proud of her.
Offstage one observer remarked that there was no discernible tension between the two. A source said they appeared close as they chatted privately about the arrangements for the next day.
"They seemed physically close and very much together," they said.
This contradicts stories that followed the couple to Dublin. There is talk that the atmosphere in the presidential car has been decidedly icy. Conversation, according to the inevitable rumours, is practically non-existent, suggesting a thaw has yet to arrive.
Outwardly, at least, none of this seems to affect Hillary. She swept confidently out of her car for the reception at the Royal College of Surgeons yesterday - "all loud voice and loud jewellery", as one observer put it.
Earlier that morning, Bertie Ahern's partner, Celia Larkin, accompanied Mrs Clinton to Trinity College, where they spent half an hour perusing the Book of Kells. She said it was a subject she was particularly interested in and that it was a personal wish that she should see the college.
At the House of Ireland on Nassau Street she cooed over the Waterford Crystal and Belleek Pottery and made some mystery purchases. "She enjoyed a private shopping visit here," said a spokeswoman, who refused to reveal exactly what Mrs Clinton had bought.
And so she had adopted the role of ordinary tourist yesterday with no formal engagements, disappointing many across the country who have been on full-time Hillary watch. The question of why she is playing Tammy Wynette to the philandering Bill Clinton is no clearer than when she first arrived.
Growing speculation that at some point within the next 10 years Hillary Rodham Clinton will divorce her husband and run for presidential office herself could have everything to do with why she has chosen to ride out this turbulent wave.
If, as is suspected, she is in politics for the long haul, then she can only benefit by being close to the seat of power for as long as possible.
In reality, whether they are holding hands or walking yards apart when they leave for Washington tomorrow, the state of their union is unlikely to be uncovered until President Clinton goes back to being plain old Bill. And maybe not even then - if the First Lady intends becoming the first lady President of the United States.