Qui-Gon could not suppress a half smile. It was true. Tahl was already impatient with the constant attention. She didn't like to be fussed over.

"Time it is for you to speak your heart," Yoda said softly. "Past time, it is."

With a heavy sigh, Qui-Gon sat on the bench next to Yoda. He did not want to unburden his heart. Yet Yoda had a right to know the facts.

"He stayed," Qui-Gon said simply. "He told me he had found something on Melida/Daan that was more important than his Jedi training. On the morning we were leaving, the Elders attacked the Young. They had starfighters and weapons. The Young were disorganized. They needed help."

"And yet stay you did not."

"My orders were to return to the Temple with Tahl."

Yoda leaned slightly backward in surprise. "Orders, they were? Counsel, it was. And always willing to ignore my counsel you are, if suits you it does."

Qui-Gon gave a start. Obi-Wan had flung almost the same words at him back on Melida/Daan.

"Are you saying I should have stayed?" Qui-Gon asked irritably. "What if Tahl had died?"

Yoda sighed. "A hard choice it was, Qui-Gon. Yet willing are you to blame your Padawan. Place the choice before him you did: forsake Jedi training, or children die, friends are betrayed. Thought you understood a boy's heart, I did."

Qui-Gon stared stonily ahead. He had not expected this rebuke from Yoda.

"Impulsive you were yourself as a student," Yoda continued. "Led by the heart, many times you were. And wrong, many times you were as well. This I remember."

"I never would have left the Jedi," Qui-Gon said angrily.

"True that is," Yoda said, nodding in agreement. "Commitment you had.

Absolute it was. Does this mean that to question, others must not? Like you always, they must be?"