pride or fear?

"Meeting them in the street, she never raised her head to receive their greeting. If they were resolute to accost her, she laid her finger on the scarlet letter, and passed on. This might be pride, but was so like humility, that it produced all the softening influence of the latter quality on the public mind." (page 141) Is she shutting people out because she wants to grasp her pride or is she afraid or embarrassed of her past? I believe it's a mizture of both. She has been pushed away and stood out from the croud for so long that she does not want to fit in. She of corse is upset about her past but imagain being shunned by society for so long then instently being invited back as if nothing ever happened?