A civil servant, Veronica’s father picks up Tony from the train station during his visit to the family home and, like Jack, seems to Tony to treat him with a jokey demeanor that barely hides his scorn. Veronica’s (unnamed) father is a heavy drinker and eventually dies of complications from alcoholism; this is one of the possible sources of distress and tension in Veronica’s family that Tony doesn’t spend too much time thinking about, even when he casually calls Veronica “damaged.”