] Actually I thought your point was to prove the degree of force Darcy needed to employ to successfully represent to Bingley that Jane was not in love with him. Perhaps I misunderstood?

I wouldn't use the word "prove," but other than that, yes, my point is that if Bingley believed Jane returned his feelings (in kind if not in degree), a questioning tone or vague hints would not have been sufficient to convince him otherwise, so for that reason, as well as others, Darcy was unlikely to be exaggerating very much, anyway, in describing his actions.

] Less than. More than. These concepts cannot be measured in any degree without a comparison

I'm not sure what your point is. Less than and more than, by definition, involve a comparison.

] If the objective of this paragraph was to prove that Darcy had no choice but to engage in nothing less than making offensive, unqualified assurances that Jane was not in love with Bingley

Actually, the offensiveness referred only to the part about the evils of connection with Jane's family -- which also happened to be the family of the person he was addressing.

] without being asked in order to convince Bingley that Jane was not in love with him I do believe it becomes important to be exact in describing the degree of understanding Bingley has of Jane's love for him.

I'm not sure how one quantifies love, much less to an exact degree. (Actually, if you could suggest a good way, I'd find that information useful.) However, what matters is how Bingley quantified it, and Bingley was apparently satisfied enough with the degree that he believe Jane felt love (or affection or whatever one wants to call it) for him to the extent that he stood up to Darcy, a man he greatly admired and depended on, in his representations of the "certain evils" of connection with her family, and to the extent that he was on the verge of proposing.

] If Bingley does not actually believe that Jane is in love with him the amount of persuasion needed to convince Bingley that Jane is not in love with him, is in fact indifferent to him becomes proportionally diminished.

But Bingley did not believe her to be indifferent. He believed that she was in love with him, according to Darcy's statement and Bingley's apparent intentions.

] I only mean to point out that a little hyperbolye in situations where one party is intent on impressing another party with the value of their representation of events sometimes enters the equation quite unconciously.

Yes, I agree. However, in this case, as I have mentioned before, I have several reasons for believing that Darcy did not exaggerate greatly, one of which is that it would have taken more than a questioning tone and vague hints to convince him that she didn't.

] No indeedy, I still have to agree with Darcy that Bingley would not have been happy married to anyone with feelings that cannot even be described by the recipient as anything better than less than equally affectionate.