I would almost buy into the sorcerer as favored, except that WotC keeps reinforcing the dragon-ancestory concept for that class. And in my mind, gnomes don't pair up with dragons -- themetically speaking.
I miss the old illusion class. It was a good fit for gnomes. But the current specialist wizard rules just don't do that concept justice anymore.
I don't particularly like bards, but I guess it's close enough.
(And I'm sorry to say have to tell you so, but beguiler isn't a REEEEEAL class. It's a cheap Frankenstien's monster of core class concepts cobbled together to jack up the page count and legitimize another hardback product.)