When she saw him thus seeking the acquaintance and courting the good opinion of people with whom any intercourse a few months ago would have been a disgrace – when she saw him thus civil, not only to herself, but to the very relations whom he had openly disdained…the difference, the change was so great, and struck so forcibly on her mind, that she could hardly restrain her astonishment from being visible.
– Jane Austen
Pride and Prejudice, Chapter 44. Mr. Darcy has come to the inn to see Elizabeth and Jane and their aunt and uncle Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner, bringing along his sister Georgiana. Elizabeth notices a great improvement in his behavior towards them and can hardly hide her astonishment. No longer is he the proud, stand-offish person that she found him in the past, but is civil and good mannered to her and Jane and the Gardiners, whom he previously looked down on as inferior.