nine o'clock
How completely does this sanctuary -- where the sweet and awful presence is ever felt of the Child who never leaves His Mother -- lift the spirit above all realities , into the secret rapture of pure beauty ! `` And how good must They both be , '' Durtal said to himself , as he looked round and found himself alone , `` never to abandon this desert , never to weary of waiting for worshippers ! But for the honest country folk who come at all hours to kiss the pillar , what a solitude it would be , even on Sunday , for this cathedral is never full . However , to be just , at the nine o'clock mass on Sundays the lower end of the nave is thronged , '' and he smiled , remembering that end of the church packed with little girls brought in schools by Sisters , and with peasant women who , not being able to see there to read their prayers , would light ends of taper and crowd together closely , several looking over one book . This familiarity , this childlike simplicity of piety , which the dreadful sacristans of Paris would never endure in a church , were ' so natural at Chartres , so thoroughly in harmony with the homely and unceremonious welcome of Our Lady ! `` A thing to be ascertained , '' said Durtal , starting on a new line of thought , `` is whether this church has preserved its surface uninjured , or whether it may not have been coloured in the thirteenth century . Some writers assert that , in Mediæval times , the interiors of cathedrals were always painted .