password-protecting with htaccess and WordPress

I have created a WordPress-driven website at http://mbaforme.net for a client. WordPress is installed at the basic level.

I want to put a folder on the web site, not managed in WordPress, that will be password-protected. So I have a folder, at http://mbaforme.net/hello , and within that folder there’s one html file and an htaccess file that has the password-protection information in it.

However, I think that the htaccess rewrite rules that are in the htaccess file that WordPress automatically creates, in the public_html website root folder, is conflicting. So, when I try to visit the password-protected folder or any document inside it, in the web browser, I instead get the WordPress-generated Page not Found page.

Can I add something to the htaccess file at the root level, to tell WordPress NOT to try to manage that hello address and/or folder? Or is there some other solution to my problem?

Thanks very much for advice.