Sentence:  Again I begged her to keep an eye on her blood pressure and not get so worked up, and once more she brushed me off, this time with a <WSD>curt</WSD> request that I would go and boil my head. [...]<!--ch. XIX--> Beginning with a <WSD>curt</WSD> “Listen, Buster,” she proceeded to sketch out with admirable clearness the salient points in the situation as she envisaged it ... 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  Brief or terse, especially to the point of being rude.