.htaccess authenticate root directory, but disable authentication for some sub-directories

[homehealth]

I am not very familiar with configuring .htaccess.

But I am able to setup Basic authentication by placing the .htaccess
file at the root level of a web site.

There are about 18 root level directories that need to be
authenticated using this .htaccess file.

However, we have 2 directories that need to be accessed directly
without authentication. I've tried using mulitple <Files> directives
which didn't result in much and the <Directory> directive which was
'not allowed here' according to the server log.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Dan