Angel’s second departure from Michael turns her fear of being unworthy into a deliberate sacrifice: believing she cannot give him children, she leaves the marriage she has come to value and asks Miriam to return his mother’s ring. Michael, learning that she has gone, refuses to chase her, so the separation ends not in reconciliation but in an open choice about whether she will return.

Causes and Decision

Angel’s departure is shaped by her conviction that she does not belong with Michael. When Miriam asks how she can leave him, Angel insists that she never belonged with him and discloses the reason she has kept to herself: she cannot have children. She believes Michael wants children and deserves them, and describes herself as having been ruined for that future long ago. Her decision is framed as being for Michael’s sake, even as it repeats the pattern of leaving rather than trusting that she can remain loved.

The Farewell

The morning before she leaves, Angel walks with Michael to the barn as he saddles his horse and asks when he expects to return. He says he will be back as soon as he can, embraces and kisses her, and tells her that he loves her and always will. Angel takes the moment as their last, though she does not tell him she is about to go.

After Michael has left, Angel packs her carpetbag, including one of his shirts, and tells Miriam that he does not know she is leaving. She says she is leaving for good this time. Looking around the cabin once more, she acknowledges that she has been happy there but does not take that happiness as a reason to stay.

At the roadside, Angel removes Michael’s mother’s wedding ring and asks Miriam to give it back to him. Miriam will not take it at first, so Angel places it in her hand and closes her fingers around it. Before boarding the coach, Angel embraces Miriam, calls her dear to her, and asks her to be strong. As the coach starts away, Angel urges Miriam to love Michael and give him the children she believes she cannot provide.

Consequences and Significance

Miriam runs to tell Michael that Angel has gone on the morning stage and begs him to bring her back. Michael says he will not go after her—not this time. When Miriam pleads that Angel may be lost to him if he does not act, he answers that if she wants to come back, she will, and if she does not, then she does not. His refusal marks a change from his earlier efforts to reclaim his wife: he leaves the decision to Angel rather than pursuing her again.

The wedding ring makes the departure more than a flight from the cabin; Angel returns a symbol of her marriage as she tries to free Michael for the children she thinks he should have. Yet the farewell also reveals how her sacrifice rests on an assumption about what Michael needs, while he responds by granting her the freedom to choose. Their separation remains unresolved at this point, suspended between Angel’s conviction that she must go and Michael’s willingness not to force her back.