A Visit
The narrator receives a letter from his friend Albert, whom he hasn't heard from in nine years, saying that Albert has"taken a wife," and inviting him …
On the weight of settled life: "I had bought a house on a pleasant street lined with porches and maples, thought quite a bit about my old friend Albert, and wondered whether this was what I had looked forward to, this life I was now leading, in the old days, the days when I still looked forward to things."