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Late that night, Nick finds Gatsby hiding in the bushes outside the Buchanans' house. When Nick guesses the truth—that Daisy was driving the car that killed Myrtle—Gatsby confirms it immediately but declares his intention to take the blame without hesitation.

The dramatic irony of 'of course I'll say I was' is that this chivalric gesture—Gatsby's willingness to accept blame for a death he did not cause—will directly lead to his own murder at Wilson's hands. The phrase 'of course' reveals that for Gatsby, protecting Daisy is so axiomatic it requires no deliberation; his devotion has become a reflex that operates independently of self-preservation, positioning him as both romantically heroic and fatally self-destructive.

Essential for essays on Gatsby's self-sacrificing devotion as both his noblest quality and the direct cause of his death, or for analyzing how his willingness to accept false guilt inverts the moral framework—the innocent man chooses punishment while the guilty woman escapes it.