Given how things turn out in the story, how do you interpret the significance of this episode?

Early in the story, a delegation of important church members visits Hooper, with the hope of getting him to remove the veil, or at least to explain it. In this scene, we are provided with this interesting bit of background, the description of a former “amiable weakness” of Hooper’s: Up to this time, we’re told, “whenever there appeared the slightest call for interference, [Hooper] had never lacked advisers, nor shown himself averse to be guided by their judgment. If he erred at all, it was by so painful a degree of self-distrust that even the mildest censure [from his parishioners] would lead him to consider an indifferent action [of his] as a crime.”Given how things turn out in the story, how do you interpret the significance of this episode?Book to use:The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Shorter 9th Edition, Volume 1, Beginnings to 1865 (Robert S. Levine, General Editor).